


You Give Love A Bad Name

by orphan_account



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aunt May Is The Best As Usual, Blood, Cheerleader Deadpool, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Homophobic Language, Identity Reveal, Idiots in Love, Kidnapping, Lots of anxiety, M/M, Masturbation, Miscommunication, Non-Canon Events, Poor Timing, Slow Burn, Texting, Used like...Once, aka the worst problem to have in any relationship, hes fine obviously, high school au for a second?, if you could even call them enemies, nothing too awful, some really mild torture?, the works, this chapter really is just a game changer huh, wade dislocates his shoulder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-06-04 09:31:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6652441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd told Deadpool he could tag along if he promised not to fight. What Peter didn't bargain for is the Merc showing up in a cheerleading uniform of all things. Why did the universe have it out for him? He was a good person, right? </p><p>(Also, self-indulgent Cheerleaderpool)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You're A Loaded Gun

"No." 

  
"Aw, c'mon Webs! Have a heart." 

  
"I _do_ have one, unlike you! That's why I'm saying no!" 

  
Peter was absolutely exasperated. He'd had to hold Deadpool off from killing people again after the anti-hero showed up for yet another impromptu team up. The guy just couldn't get it through his thick head that Peter didn't need the help, nor did he want it. He could handle some muggers on his own, without the incessant worry that Deadpool was about to turn them into taco meat. Or whatever he was into. The guy smelled like rotting meat, so Peter could only assume. 

  
Speaking of muggers he needed to get these guys all ready for the police. 

  
"Ouch! _Shot_ _through_ _the_ _heart_ _and_ _you're_ _to_ _blame_!" Peter sighed as the merc broke into song and scrubbed tiredly at his face through his mask.

  
"Come ooooon! I won't unalive anyone, scouts honor." Deadpool held up three fingers in what Peter assumed was a scout salute. 

  
"The lead I got is too important, Deadpool! If these guys really show up to rob the place tomorrow then I need to be focused and I can't stay focused if-" 

  
"If I'm there, with all these tightly packed muscles! I know I'm hot shit, but you should try and control your hormones, Spidey. Really, how old are you anyway?" 

  
  
Peter rolled his eyes even though he knew Wade wouldn't see it from behind the Spider-Man mask. Why did everyone assume he was still a hormonal teenager? He was twenty-three and just had a lot of built up tension after being single for so long. Being a superhero and a college student with a full-time job did not work wonders for your romantic life, believe it or not. 

  
"I'm not a teenager, Wade. Listen, what I was going to say was, I can't focus if I have to constantly keep an eye on you to see if you're about to ki-"

  
" _Unalive_ is preferable really." Wade interrupted. 

  
"Fine, I can't keep watch over you to see if you're about to 'unalive' someone. I need to have my senses clear." 

  
"So does that mean I can't come watch? Oh! I can be like your super hot cheerleader and totally not get involved unless you ask me to! Please, Spidey? I love watching you beat up the bad guys. I'll cheer you on from the sidelines and be on my best behavior!" 

  
Peter could swear that Deadpool was giving him his best kicked puppy eyes through his mask. Sighing, he quickly webbed up the muggers to the lamp on the street corner and turned back to Deadpool, who had his hands clasped together beneath his chin. At this point Peter just wanted to get home and finish as much of his lab assignment as he could before passing out. Even though he couldn't trust Wade as far as he could throw him, (Which was actually pretty far, considering his super strength. So maybe that wasn't the best analogy...) he let out a groan and gave in. 

  
"Fine. Okay, you can come along if you _swear_ you'll stay out of the way." 

  
"Woohoo! Thanks Spidey, you're the best hero friend a guy could have!" Peter quickly found himself engulfed in a large pair of arms and a smell that is most definitely Deadpool. Seriously, it smelled like taco meat, iron, and the obvious musk from whatever fighting he had been doing since the last time he washed his suit. _If_ he washed his suit. Peter shuddered and pushed Wade away as gently as he could manage with his sudden rush of Mysophobia.

  
"Yep, well... Still not friends, but if tomorrow goes smoothly, I'll think about it." No harm in adding a little blackmail. 

  
"You got it, Web Head! I swear I will be the best sidekick ever! The Chewbacca to your Han Solo, the Watson to your Sherlock! Hey did you know Iron Man was in that movie?" 

  
"Uh..." Peter shook his head, brushing off Wade's latter comment. Sometimes the guy would just start talking nonsense and it was best to ignore it. "Well, I have to get going. Lots of work to catch up on, you know? See you tomorrow, Wade." Without waiting for a reply, he quickly shot a web up to a nearby building and made his getaway. Though, he could still hear Deadpool call after him as he left. 

  
"See ya'! You are going to _die_ when you see my outfit tomorrow, Baby Boy! You'll love it, I swear!" 

  
Yeah, he was going to pretend he didn't hear that for his own peace of mind. 

 

* * *

  
  
 Work was grueling. Jameson gave him hell for not having new pictures of Spider-Man since reports had come in that he was palling around with Deadpool last night. Too bad for Jameson, he was not going to get pictures of that. Deadpool was the only one with worse PR than him, being a known mercenary and all.

  
All that aside, he was finally free to roam the city for a while before he headed over to meet said Merc. Swinging over the city was always the best feeling in the world, he even ended up stopping a purse snatcher while he was at it. 

  
"All good things must come to an end..." Mumbling to himself, he made his way over to a building across from the nearby bank. He touched down on the rooftop and approached the side of the roof to get a better look at the building across the way. Crouching down, he began keeping watch over the people coming in and out of the banks doors and trained his Spidey Senses in on the building. 

  
"What's up, Webs? Find anything good with those invisible feelers of yours?" The voice came from right next to him and he let out a very embarrassing sound that he absolutely refused to call a squeak. No matter how squeak-like it was. When he turned to look at the others face he could see Deadpool grinning through his mask, the bastard. 

  
"Wow." 

  
"Shut up." He turned back in the direction of the bank, face turning red under his mask. 

  
"I was only gonna' say that you must have been pretty focused on what's happening down there to not hear me comin' with your- uh?"

  
"Spidey Senses. Not invisible feelers or... Whatever it was you said." Peter supplied.

  
"Yep, those!" There was a short pause where neither of them spoke. Peter thought that, just maybe, this was Deadpool letting him focus. He was wrong. 

  
"So uh... I'm a little offended here. I mean, you're our star player. And I'm head cheerleader. We were basically written in the stars for one another! And yet, you ignore how smoking hot I look right now!? I put a lot of effort into looking this good, the least you could do is acknowledge my outfit." Peter could hear the pout in Wade's voice and sighed, turning around. He didn't even want to try and make sense of all that, so it was best to just humor the man and-

  
"You have got to be kidding me."

  
Deadpool was standing there in a near-impossible boobs and butt pose. And what was even more ridiculous was the red cheerleading uniform he was wearing over his usual suit. 

  
" _You_ _like_? I'm gonna' be the best goddamn cheerleader you've ever seen." Deadpool started doing a variety of poses, ruffling a pair of bright yellow pompoms that Peter had barely registered before. 

  
  
What did he do to deserve this? He just stopped a purse snatcher, this wasn't how karma worked! 

  
"Aw, you're speechless! I'm flattered, Spidey, but uhh-" Deadpool peered around him and began pointing towards something. "You might want to pay a little less attention to my pompoms, if you know what I mean, and pay more attention to that whole robbery thing that's gonna' happen." 

  
"What!?" Peter whipped around to see a group of five men exiting a van just down the street from where they were perched. His Spider Senses kicked in almost immediately after spotting them. Strangely, they started heading _away_ from the bank.

  
"Wait, how do you know those are the guys? They're not even heading towards the bank." He turned back around to face the other man, who was picking at a loose thread on his cheer skirt. 

  
"Well, isn't it obvious? Any professional, such as myself, could see the poorly concealed weapons. They're probably being employed by someone who actually knows what they're doing." Deadpool shrugged. 

  
"Anyway, I've got some great cheers ready so let's go! Unless you're waiting for me to give you a good luck kiss before the big game?" The man exaggerated the movement of leaning towards Peter and puckering his lips through his mask. 

  
"Yeah, no I'm- I'm good." Peter turned around and quickly webbed up to a building across the street. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, keeping an eye out for the guys they saw before. He spotted them in an alley a couple buildings away and followed silently. They finally stopped outside one of the building and knocked on the alley door. Peter watched from above, soon joined by Deadpool. It was actually pretty impressive that the guy could keep up so well. Wade wasn't even built for jumping across roof tops, he was built more like a brick wall actually. Seriously, how do you get muscles like that without steroids or-

  
"Hey, do I- do I have something on my face? Besides the mask of course. If the mask wasn't there I totally wouldn't blame you for staring. And then vomiting. Or at the very least, gagging? That's a thing you do not need to see. You should continue to be totally turned on by my hot cheerleader getup and not disgusted by my totally not-hot face." 

  
Peter didn't know where the sudden bout of self-deprecation came from, but it really wasn't a good color on Deadpool. He obviously tried to cover it up with wit, but it only made Peter feel more guilty about making him uncomfortable. He looked away quickly, just in time to see the men in the alley disappear into the building. 

  
"You made me get tacos with you once, Wade. I've seen the bottom of your face. I didn't vomit, in fact, I was doing the opposite of vomiting. I was _eating_." He looked back over his shoulder at Wade. 

  
"About the staring, I was just pretty shocked you could keep up with me without inheriting your agility from a spider." 

  
Wade laughed. "I don't need spider agility to keep up with you, Webs! So why don't you lead the way into this sketchy operation so I can show you just how agile I am?" Wade paused before quickly adding, "With my cheers! 'Cause I totally didn't forget that you asked me not to do any fighting!" 

  
"Right. The cheers." Peter wilted a bit as he turned back to the building once again. There was an open window further up, conveniently. Peter pointed up to it and Deadpools eyes followed, he gave a quick nod in understanding. 

  
"Convenient." He echoed Peter's thoughts. "Almost like the author wanted to make this easier on herself. There's just one problem. I don't climb buildings." He leaned over to nudge Peter. Peter sighed, knowing immediately what was coming next when he could _see_ the smirk on Deadpool's face.

  
"Want to give me a ride, Baby Boy?" 

 

* * *

  
  
Peter didn't know why his face felt so hot. It was probably just the embarrassment of having to carry a grown man on his back. Definitely not how Wade had hiked up that ridiculously short skirt so that he could get his legs around Peter's hips. Definitely not because he could feel Wade flush against him or because the Merc had nuzzled contentedly into Peter's shoulder just a moment ago. 

  
Nope, he wasn't even thinking about those things. The window was so close now, just a few feet more. 

  
"Hey, do you think that we can try this again later but with the web swinging? I've always wanted to do that!" Deadpool's voice in his ear startled him out of his concentration. 

  
"Uh- I don't think so." Yes, the window! He'd never been so happy to see a window! He peered in, not seeing anyone on that particular floor and slipped inside quietly. 

  
  
"Aw, but it's on my bucket list..." Deadpool was speaking low into his ear now and it really wasn't helping the blushing situation that was happening under Peter's mask. 

  
"How do you have a bucket list when you can't even die?" 

  
"Wow, okay. Since I can't die, I can't have goals in life? That's cold, Spidey." To emphasize his displeasure he smacked Peter lightly in the face with one of the pompoms. 

  
"That's not what I meant. Also, can you let go now?" 

  
"And now you're kicking me off the Spidey Express?" Wade dropped his feet to the floor, despite his obvious reluctance, and stepped back. When Peter turned around Wade was fiddling with his skirt, fixing the rumples in the pleats before picking his pompoms back up and crossing his arms. 

  
Peter rolled his eyes and started moving towards the stairs where he could hear the men on the floor below them better. When he looked back he saw Wade was stood in the same spot by the window. 

  
"Wade, are you going to keep pouting or are you going to follow me?" He called back, still trying to keep his voice hushed. He actually wouldn't mind letting the Merc stay here, but it was too late to take back his words now. 

  
He saw Wade sigh as he walked, shoulders slumped, over to Peter and crouched down next to him. 

  
"Not even an apology? _Soooo_ cold." Wade sighed out, placing a hand dejectedly over his heart. 

  
He groaned softly and scrubbed a hand tiredly over his face. What did he do to deserve this? His Parker Luck would never cease to amaze him. 

  
"Sorry, for hurting your precious feelings." He trained back in on the conversation below, really trying to gather any information he could. And most importantly he needed to figure out how many people he was dealing with. 

  
"Aw, I could never stay mad at you Spidey! It's nice to know you care though." 

  
"It sounds like there's six or seven guys down there..." Peter said, ignoring Deadpool's change in mood. 

  
"That's a lot of guys for just one little spider..." Deadpool trailed off, leaving an obvious hint in his tone. The worst part was that he was right. Peter would have trouble taking down all of them at once and there was no way to be stealthy about it when they were all in the same place. 

  
"Okay." He tuned to Deadpool, trying to sound as deadly serious as he could. "If I let you help I don't want to see any weapons, got it?" 

  
"Do my pompoms count as weapons?" He shook them lightly to emphasize. 

  
"I- what? No?" Peter listened back in downstairs, but he couldn't hear talking anymore. 

  
"Okay, you're going to wait for my signal and then we'll-" he was interrupted when a man appeared at the bottom of the stairs." 

  
"Hey! We've got guests, boys! It's Spider-Man and his look-alike!" The man quickly pulled out a gun pointing it at the two. 

  
"About that signal, should we go now?" 

  
"Now is good!" 

 

* * *

  
   
He was going to _die_. If any of these guys remembered any of this when they woke up he was going to _die_ _of_ _embarrassment_. Deadpool, true to his word, was being the best cheerleader he could be. Or in Peter's opinion, the most annoying cheerleader he could be. He even made up cheers insulting Spider-Man whenever he got knocked down! 

  
"2, 3, 4, 5! If you don't win, people will die!" This was not motivational at all! 

  
"W-E-B-S! He's good at lying down, I guess!" Peter groaned as he picked himself up off the floor. This was humiliating. Not to mention, even the positive cheers were awful! 

  
"Spider-Man, he has it all! When he's around the bad guys fall! He's hotter than the Human Torch! Uhhh- Makes me sin so hard, I have to go to church!" 

  
"That one hardly worked!" He yelled indignantly. 

  
"Well, it's not exactly easy to come up with so many great rhymes while fist fighting a bunch of guys with guns!" Deadpool shot back. 

  
Peter managed to take of out one of the last three remaining men with his webs, he stood up from where he had been knocked down and looked over at Deadpool. Wade was currently fighting the last two remaining criminals. The Merc sacrificed one of his pompoms, hurling it into one of the men's faces so that he could knock the other back. A gunshot rang out from the first man and the bullet hit Deadpool in the arm, causing the man to curse.

  
"You are so lucky that you didn't ruin this dress, pal!" Wade snarled.

  
"Nice boyfriend you've got here Spider-Man! I really thought you'd have a cute girl or something, didn't know you were a fairy." The man didn't have much time to laugh as Peter webbed his mouth shut and then proceeded to web him to the nearest wall. 

  
He heard the other man laugh too at his friends "joke", but it was cut off as Deadpool slammed the man into the ground and swiftly knocked him out with a punch to the side of the head.   
Deadpool let out a long whistle as he got up, brushing off his skirt. "We really cleaned up, Spidey!" He slowly approached the man that Peter had just webbed to the wall. 

  
"I still think we should kill the funny guy here, but it's your call." 

  
"We're not killing anyone." 

  
"I knew you'd say that." Wade sighed. He leaned in close to the criminal. "You're really lucky Spidey is so nice, you know? If I had it my way, I'd be doing a fun ribbon routine with your entrails right now." Peter watched the man swallow deeply as he struggled against the webs. 

  
"Come on, Deadpool. There's some police staked out by the bank from when I gave them a heads up about the robbery. I'll tell them we stopped these guys before they could even leave their hide out and let them handle the rest." He stretched as he moved toward the door, already feeling the places where new bruises would be blooming. 

  
"You got it!" Deadpool picked up the pompom he tossed earlier on his way to the door. He ruffled them in Peter's face when he got close enough. "Spidey, Spidey he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!" Peter rolled his eyes as he let the Merc walk out the door before him. 

  
"I _know_ he's not, but a guy can dream." He heard Wade mumble. That happened sometimes too, the thing with the voices in his head. Peter usually just shrugged it off and tried to make conversation with the guy to distract him. He remembered an off-handed comment Deadpool had made once about the voices being quiet when Peter was talking. Apparently, they listened to him? He didn't know weather to feel flattered or concerned by that. 

  
"So, uh... I'm going to go ahead and say it's best if the police don't see us together. You're not exactly on the most wanted list, but you're still technically a criminal to them." He hugged himself as he stepped out of the building and was met with the chilly, night air.

  
"Oh, right! Not a problem. This was fun, we should do it more often!" He could see Deadpool smiling through the mask. 

  
"I guess you redeemed yourself tonight so... You know what? Sure." Oh boy, he was going to regret this a couple hours from now. Actually, he was sort of regretting it right now. What do you know, a new record. 

  
"Really? Wait, you're serious right now?" Peter nodded in confirmation. 

  
"Wow. Uh- Okay. I didn't really expect that? Listen, about what that guy said-" 

  
"It doesn't matter." He cut Deadpool off, really not needing to talk about this right now. 

  
"No, it doesn't, but I just want you to know I won't wear the dress next time. Or any dress. Gotta' make sure I look the part of Spider-Man's new partner or whatever?" 

  
Peter laughed. "Thanks, though I don't really care about that stuff. I mean, have you seen what they write about me in the paper?" 

  
Deadpool shrugged and scratched the back of his head. "Doesn't hurt to make an effort?" 

  
"Well, I appreciate it." Peter wasn't going to lie, he pinched himself to see if this was actually real. And here he was, still in the alley talking to Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth, who was still wearing that ridiculous cheerleading uniform. There was no way he'd ever dream of that. 

  
Oh God, he was staring at the skirt again. When he snapped his gaze back up to meet Deadpool's he could tell the Merc knew exactly where he was looking. Why did the universe never cut him any slack. 

  
"You _sure_ that's all you appreciate, Baby Boy?" 

  
"Goodbye, Wade." There was the heat in his cheeks again. He turned on his heel and started briskly walking to the end of the alley. 

  
"But I didn't get my post-game smooch! How could you do this to me? And right before the prom!" Deadpool called over-dramatically after him. 

  
" _Goodbye_ , _Wade_." 

  
" _Fiiiine_. Hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave." Wade sighed from behind him and Peter rolled his eyes, quickly webbing away in the direction of flashing red and blue lights. 

 

* * *

  
  
Peter groaned as he entered through the window into his small apartment. He was really feeling those bruises now. They'd probably heal up in a day, but they were always annoying the first couple hours after receiving them. 

  
He started peeling off his suit as he made his way to the bathroom, ready to take a much needed shower. Hopefully, the hot water would stay on long enough that he could relax his sore muscles. 

  
Peter scrubbed at his face tiredly, glancing into the mirror at his reflection. There were little purple bruises popping up across his ribs, but nothing too bad. He started up the shower and waited for the water to get hot before discarding the remainder of his suit and stepping in. 

  
Peter leaned against the shower wall and let out a content sigh. He'd never admit it to Deadpool, but having his help took a big load off his shoulders. He didn't even have to think about Wade killing anyone today! If he kept it up, he could probably see himself teaming up with the guy more often. 

  
All that aside, Peter could finally relax after a long day. His luck seemed to be looking up when he finished washing and noticed that the water was still hot. He took the time he had left to just lean back against the tiled wall and think. 

  
At some point he had ended up trailing a palm down his torso and sighing as he wrapped his hand around his cock. He felt a blush rise to his cheeks for what felt like the hundredth time that day. This kind of thing just happens sometimes! It's totally natural and not at all due to any of the thoughts he was thinking! 

  
The thoughts he was thinking just happened to be Deadpool in that stupid cheerleading uniform. He was wearing it over his suit for God's sake! There was absolutely no reason for it to be as distracting as it was! 

  
And his thoughts just kept wandering without his permission. Deadpool pressed against him from behind, skirt hiked up revealing leather covered thighs. Deadpool speaking low in his ear, causing shivers to go down Peter's spine. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the Merc had a pretty attractive voice at times. And of course, Deadpool with all his stupid flirtatious cheers and comments. 

  
Those fairly innocent images turned very not innocent _very_ quickly. And then there was Deadpool again, still clad in that cheerleading uniform, pompoms discarded on the floor as he kneeled in front of Peter and- 

  
Peter gasped as he came over his hand, sliding down the tiled wall, afraid his shaking legs wouldn't hold him much longer. Realizing what had just happened, he groaned and immediately buried his face in his hands, which led to him accidentally and embarrassingly getting come in his hair. With another miserable groan, he leaned into the now lukewarm spray of water. 

  
Peter washed himself off as the water turned colder and eventually he ended up just shutting the water off completely. He curled up on the shower floor with a pitiful whine and looked up at the ceiling. This wasn't what he wanted to happen. 

  
"This _isn't_ how karma works!"


	2. Lose Your Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is a mess.

They teamed up a few times after the "Cheer Incident", as Peter had dubbed it. Surprisingly, he didn't mind teaming up with Deadpool nearly as much as he expected. He almost liked it as much as when he got to team up with the Avengers. With the Avengers he felt like he was more important. He was part of a big team that was made up of other insanely important people. How could he not feel flattered to fight alongside them?

  
With Deadpool he didn't have to worry about screwing up. He didn't have to put on a show or try and prove himself to anyone. Deadpool thought that whatever he did was either incredibly cool or incredibly dorky, but for some reason it didn't bother Peter that he could be seen as both. He was free of pressure, even if all the time he was spending with Wade was encroaching on his homework time.

  
The best part about fighting alongside Deadpool was the banter. He'd gotten some wit out of the Avengers before, especially Tony and Clint. This was different though, Wade had almost an identical sense of humor to him at times. He found himself smiling more and more as they became familiar with the jokes that would fly between them.

  
Their last team up wasn't too exciting until Peter had used his Spidey Senses to predict an oncoming car crash. The whole thing could have ended up messy with the speed the other car was going. When Peter jumped into traffic Deadpool had understandably freaked out a little, but it became obvious that he was impressed as Peter managed to lift one of the cars with ease and prevent the collision.

  
"Shit! I forgot you were so strong, Baby Boy. That was fucking _incredible_!"

  
Peter couldn't help but feel proud that he had impressed the other with something as simple as lifting a car with his super strength. He had a witty response ready on his tongue when he put the car down and turned to face Deadpool, but the comment died on his lips.

  
Deadpool was still letting out little whoops, celebrating with some of the civilians around him. What made Peter pause was the way he had his arms in the air and was jumping up and down, very similar to the way he had cheered for Peter a couple weeks ago. He could just see the short skirt and the way the fabric had risen up high over Wades leather covered thighs when he jumped.

  
  
Then Deadpool was right in front of him, jerking him out of his thoughts. A lot happened at once, most of it blurring together in Peter's mind. Deadpool had quickly scooped him up as a car literally brushed Peter's right arm, before he was yanked out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.

  
"You okay, Spidey? You scared the piss out of me. Shit, thought your dumb Spider Senses would have seen that coming a mile away." Deadpool dropped his head onto Peter's shoulder and let out a heavy sigh.

  
"I-Uh-Sorry... Yeah, I'm find I just got really distracted?" He tensed up a little at the close contact, but didn't push the other away.

  
"Oh?" Wade lifted his head and stepped back from Peter, probably sensing some of his discomfort.

  
"Yeah, I totally forgot I had to-uh- run by my aunts house before it gets too late! So, yeah, I'm gonna have to cut the patrol off a little early." It was a lie, but on the other hand it wouldn't hurt to actually go visit Aunt May.

  
"Right, the infamous hot aunt!"

  
"Please don't call my aunt hot."

  
Peter rolled his eyes, he had mentioned Aunt May before in no specific terms besides the fact that she was his aunt. Deadpool had run away with the idea of Peter having a young hot relative. Peter wished he found it more annoying, but he couldn't hold back a laugh every time it came up. He realized Wade really had a thing for old people when the guy had gone on and on about Bea Arthur one night when they were out on patrol. He will never ask about _'Golden Girls'_ again.

  
"I'll stop calling your aunt hot when you let me meet her and prove she isn't actually a smoke bomb. Otherwise, I'm not convinced and neither are the voices." Speaking of the voices, Peter had learned a little more about those. Apparently, they give Deadpool some pretty shitty advice at times and it can influence the way Wade actually acts. Peter felt bad, to say the least, when he'd learned this. Wade's mental health was always bordering on 'Slightly Unhealthy' and 'Straight Up Soup Sandwich' so it seemed.

  
"You are not meeting my aunt. I don't need you knowing who I am, secret identity remember?"

  
"Oh, I'm well aware of your secret I.D. It haunts me every day! I thought you trusted me, Spidey. I mean, you know my name!" Deadpool dramatically clutched his hand over his heart.

  
" _Everyone_ knows your name, Wade."

  
"True, it's hard to get business when no one knows who you are... Speaking of-" Peter cut Wade off.

  
"As great as this whole conversation is, I really should go before it gets dark." He was already turning around and pointing his web shooters at the nearby skyscrapers.

  
"Okay, but Spidey, I really think you should listen to this f-" He heard Deadpool behind him, probably ready to make up more excuses to learn who he is under the mask.

  
"Catch you later, Wade!" He shot a web out and began swinging away, ignoring the exasperated cry of the man behind him.

  
He could not believe he had thought about the cheerleading thing again! It had been a week since he'd last thought about it, so it really seemed like he was finally making progress. Then Wade had to ruin it.

  
He grabbed his bag from the rooftop near his apartment building and swung it onto his back, jumping off the roof and making his way to Aunt May's. When he got to her building he took out his civilian clothes and changed quickly in the alley before making his way up to her apartment.

  
He felt bad for ignoring Wade back there, but he couldn't keep making excuses about the secret identity thing forever. The Avengers all knew who he was and really he should be able to trust Wade too, but it just wasn't that easy. At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

  
Plus, the Avengers still didn't trust Wade like Peter had started to. The man hadn't killed anyone in almost a month and they pretended like that was nothing! It was a miracle in Peter's opinion.  
Well, no use in making his aunt worry. He put on a smile and knocked on her door, just hoping she still had some extra food around for her starving nephew.

 

 

* * *

 

  
Peter didn't see Deadpool again for two months. He felt bad for being relieved when Wade hadn't shown up to the next patrol, but any extra time he had to forget about the resurgence of the "Cheer Incident" was much appreciated. The next time he didn't show Peter shrugged it off as well.

  
It wasn't until the tenth time that Peter just stopped going to their usual meeting place. And then once a full month had passed, Peter stopped looking over the rooftops with the hope that he'd see Deadpool trying to catch up with him.

  
Once it became two months, Peter lapsed back into that state of worry. Wade couldn't _die_ so why did he just suddenly disappear?

  
All this nagging in the back of his brain is what drove him to the Avengers Tower to ask for help. When he arrived the doors opened automatically, JARVIS probably had no problem recognizing him.  
"Uh-Jarvis," He called out as he stepped inside. "Could you get ahold of Mr. Stark for me?"

  
"Yes, of course. He will meet you upstairs, Mr. Parker. I take it you remember where the lab is?"

  
"I do. Thanks." Peter called the elevator, which opened up for him almost immediately, and stepped inside.

  
When he reached the lab floor the elevator chimed and the doors opened to reveal a very tense looking Tony Stark.

  
"Peter, did you know you have surprisingly good timing?"

  
"That's not what I'd call it, but okay. Why do you say that?" He stepped out of the elevator and towards the older man.

  
"You had something to ask me and it just so happens, I have something I need to talk to you about as well." Tony shrugged and turned back towards a lab table. Peter followed along attentively.

  
"I need to ask you about Deadpool. I know you don't really like the guy. Like at all, but-"

  
"What a coincidence," he cut Peter off. "I was about to ask you about Wade Wilson, myself." Tony tuned to him with a smile that looked more like a grimace.

  
"Oh. Well, we haven't teamed up in a couple months now so if that's the problem-"

  
"Actually, that is the problem. For the past couple months we have had to send people out to clean up the bloody messes your _friend_ has left behind."

  
Peter winced at the way the word 'friend' left Tony's mouth. "Okay. First of all, were not really friends. Second, I don't even know where Wade is? That's what I came here to ask you." And that whole 'bloody messes' part was not sitting well with him right now.

  
"Wilson has been busy on a job, I assume. He's been on and off the radar. It's almost impossible to track him right now so it's anyone's guess where the next massacre will happen or if he's even done with the job, whatever it is." Tony scrubbed a hand over his face, tiredly as Peter tried to absorb everything.

  
"So he took another mercenary job? And you're sure it's him who's doing all this?"  
  


"Positive, kiddo. I knew you were trying to do the whole hero thing and save him, but a man like Wilson isn't gonna' change."

  
Peter felt numb. Everything was for nothing. Once word got out that Deadpool was back to killing there was no doubt that Peter would be fingered as an accomplice. Well, Spider-Man would. Peter would just have to take pictures to go next to the articles in the _Daily_   _Bugle_.

  
"Were you going to ask me what I knew about it?"

  
"That was the plan, but you're clearly more lost than we are."

  
"Yeah, I think I'd be the last person he'd tell. For all I know he could have been earning my trust to try and keep us off his back." Peter fell into a nearby chair with a long sigh. "I mean, if he's smart enough to make a plan like that."

  
Tony chuckled, "We're handling it. He can't stay missing forever and when we find him I'll make sure to land an extra punch just for y-"

  
"I'd rather just punch him myself, if it's all the same to you. So uh- Don't lock him up straight away." Peter grinned up at Tony, who seemed surprised to hear this. He shook it off pretty quick, smiling right back at Peter.

  
"You've got it, Spider-Man."

 

* * *

 

  
A week later there was still nothing.

  
Two weeks later and Peter wasn't even angry anymore. He was on top of a tall skyscraper overlooking the city, listening to the constant buzz of New York. It was so peaceful he didn't even jump when he heard the steps of heavy boots behind him.

  
"Hey, there's my favorite Spider! What's with all the brooding?" A voice he would have been happy to hear just a couple weeks ago now grated on his nerves.

  
Okay, so maybe he was still a _little_ bit mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday to me! I got it done. 
> 
> So it's much shorter that the first, but I really wanted to crank this out right before exams. I won't have an update next Monday, but hopefully within that week since I'm just taking all my finals and then doing hanging out with friends and seeing Civil War as a late birthday thing. 
> 
> Sorry about any terrible mistakes in this chapter and thanks for reading!


	3. Burning Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-Man vs. Apartment Fire!  
> (Peter makes more mistakes. What else is new?)

Okay, Peter might have been more than a _little_ mad. He was trying his best not to outwardly fume, deciding to keep silent instead. He knew that nothing got on Wade’s nerves more than silence and this time was no different.   
  
  
“Ooookay, you want to explain what’s going on? ‘Cause I’m a little lost here, Webs.” Peter felt his teeth grinding together with the effort not to go off on Wade.   
  
  
“Uh, hello? You’re being super fucking angsty right now. I know you’re, like, a teen and everything and that’s normal for you, but-“ _Oh…_ Peter lost his cool entirely. Well, if there was any there to begin with.   
  
  
“First off, I don't know how many times I’m going to have to tell you that I’m not a teenager!”  
  
  
“’Til you tell me how old you actually are, I’m gonna go ahead and pretend you’re twelve.” Peter could see the grin through Deadpool’s mask and he felt his blood boil. The Merc was obviously making a joke, but Peter wasn’t in the mood at all.   
  
  
“Why would I tell you that or _anything_ else when you wouldn’t tell me shit two months ago when you decided you were going to disappear to God knows where!?” So much for the silent treatment.

  
“Oh. Okay, shit. Uh- shit, I actually meant to talk about that first thing, if you’d believe it? You just seemed- Anyway, I tried to tell you before I left. It wasn’t really a big deal, Spidey-“  
  


  
“Wasn’t a big deal!?” He whipped around to glare at Deadpool through his mask.  


“Fuck.”

“You didn’t try and tell me shit! I talked to Tony, Wade. I know people got hurt and I know the Avengers had to trail you for weeks just to clean up the messes you left behind. I mean, I guess I should have known you were going to pull some shit like this again. It was only a matter of time!” As he spoke he stood from his crouched position and approached Wade, fists clenched at his side. As his words got more exasperated and hurtful he watched Deadpool’s entire demeanor shift in front of him.

  
Wade let out a sharp laugh, “So you’re just assuming all of that was my fault? Let’s get something straight, those kills weren't me. They were all the jackass I was trying to,” He cut himself off, turning away and muttering to himself. “Well, as much as I wanted to kill the bastard I wasn’t actually _trying_ to.” He shook his head, looking back at Peter.  
  
  
“I didn’t do damage to anyone but myself, okay? So you can take the “holier-than-thou-hero” schtick and shove it up that fine ass of yours, ‘cause you don’t know a fuckin’ thing about what’s been going on the past two months!”  
  
  
“No, I don’t! And whose fault is that?” Peter jabbed his finger against the Mercs chest, but it was immediately slapped away.

  
“Fuck you, _Spider-Man_.” The way he said the heroes name almost made Peter flinch. Almost. 

  
“It’s your damn fault! Because, like I said, I was actually trying to talk to you about it, but you ignored me and cut me off like always because of that “holier-than-thou” thing I mentioned a minute ago,” he pushed Peter back away from himself and started pacing back and forth in front of him. “And I was ignoring that ‘cause I convinced myself that you had some kind of _right_ to act like you were better than me! I mean you- _Ugh!_ And you webbed away before I could say anything else! I was about to follow you, but you were going off to your aunts place and you don’t want me to know anything about you! You don’t even want to tell me your goddamn age, like I’m going to try and track down every twenty-something in Queens!”  
  
  
“How do I know that’s true? Why should I believe you over the Avengers?” Peter kept his voice calm this time. He wanted to ask more about the job, but the guy was so obviously close to the edge at this point that he was afraid it would push the argument to it’s boiling point. At least Wade admitted he wasn’t twelve, that’s a start, right?

  
“Are you fucking serious?” Wade’s voice was quiet and it scared Peter more than when he was yelling. “The Avengers are judgmental pricks! I fight crime with you for weeks, we become great pals, I give you a hundred reasons to trust me,” he cut himself off again, apparently the voices were chatty today. “Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but- _Fuck_!” He turned back to Peter, his voice raised again.  
  
  
“The point is, you could know everything about me if you wanted to! You have my name and I know the Avengers have files on me, you could read them whenever you want and I can’t do fuck all about it. You could know everything and I know _nothing_ about you! I wasn’t going to push this, you have a secret identity and I respected that! Then you suddenly pull all this trust shit on me and you have no idea how hypocritical you sound! Do you not think that’s even the slightest bit fucked?” 

  
  
Peter knew about the files, Tony had encouraged him to read them that day he went to visit the tower. He hadn’t looked past the first page, feeling like it wasn’t fair to dig into Wade’s past without his permission.

  
“Of course the Avengers have files like that, but I didn’t-“ 

  
“You talk about the Avengers a lot.” Deadpool was looking at the ground now. He laughed, it was self deprecating and Peter hated it.  
  
  
“I’m actually surprised you agreed to hang around with me in the first place, what with all the shit they must have told you about me. ‘Course that doesn’t matter if they were the ones who told you to let me tag around with you.”  
  
  
“Wade, wha-“

  
“Bet they thought I’d tell you all about the job, huh? Since we became such great _pals_.” The way he spits the word at Peter send a wave of guilt crashing through him, despite none of these things being true. Wade really thought the Avengers made him fake their friendship to get intel?

  
“And I was, you know? I was going to tell you everything and you would have just- just ran back to them and gave them your damn mission report and then it’s bye-bye Deadpool!” Another pause, Wade muttering under his breath this time, too low for him to hear. 

  
“Yeah, there’s no way Spider-Man would hang out with a freak like Deadpool unless he was being told to do it by daddy Stark.” Wade said, mockingly.

  
“I don’t just do whatever Tony says. And that’s not what happened, you’re not giving me time to explain!” Peter was exasperated at this point, most of his anger simmering down.

  
“Sounds familiar. Oh, just so you know, before I head off, my target for the mission was some asshole who wanted to get at you and the Avengers. I led him right to them, no killing, he’s in Avengers custody right now as we speak. And it only took a couple months of getting shot in the head and then regenerating and doing it all over again! Pretty cool right? I mean, he was not a cool dude, totally deserved to die IMO. That’s not my decision though. Anyway…” Wade trailed off for a moment, glancing up at Peter. 

  
He sighed. “It was stupid, right? To think I’d make an _inch_ of progress with the whole trust thing?” The way Wade said it sent a sharp pain through Peter’s chest that he really didn’t need to be thinking about right now.  
  
  
Peter shook his head, “No, I _do_ trust y-“ but Deadpool cut him off again.

  
“That’s bullshit and we both know it. You proved you don’t and at this point, Baby Boy… I don’t think I can trust _you_.”

  
It shouldn’t have been surprising. It should have hurt as much has it did, but when Peter opened his mouth to retort the words were stuck in his throat. The only thing that managed to escape was a choked off “Wade“. 

 

“Deadpool.” Wade corrects him quickly and Peter feels lost. “Listen, I’ll stay out of your hair from now on. That’s probably what you’ve been wanting from the beginning, right?” Wade doesn’t wait for an answer and gives him a mock salute. Peter watches helplessly as the Merc steps off the side of the building, making his get away.

  
He stood there a few moments longer almost expecting this whole thing to be a joke and for Wade to jump out of nowhere and yell “Gotcha'!” or something. 

  
“Why am I acting so pathetic all of a sudden?” He sat back down on the roofs ledge and let his head fall in his hands.

  
“It’s just Deadpool, you’re mad at him anyway. Just hate him! If you do that… If you do that you’re fine. You’re fine, Peter.” He let out a long sigh, he couldn’t even convince himself that he hadn’t fucked up.

  
He ended up sitting there on the roof until it got dark and the street lights all flickered on, eventually willing himself to move when he heard police sirens wail a couple blocks away.

 

* * *

It was late, but he wasn’t going to return home until he could feel exhaustion in every muscle. After the whole thing with Deadpool, Peter decided it would be best to throw himself into his work. He always worked better through emotional stuff when he could punch a few bad guys in the face while he was at it. Or he just ignored the problem and worked until he was too tired to stay awake and dwell on it. That’s probably the more accurate description of what was going on actually.

  
Too much time to himself and he’d probably start eating buckets of ice cream on the couch while watching sappy movies. The only other option was to go out looking for trouble. On the bright side, his Spidey Senses making his brain go numb meant he couldn’t think about Deadpool.

  
Speaking of, his whole body was tingling right now. Something this bad hadn’t popped up in a long time and he was quick to web straight towards the problem, letting his senses lead him. He saw the glow of the fire and smelt the thick smoke before he actually saw the building itself.

  
It was an apartment complex, completely engulfed in flames and going down quick. It was obviously getting too dangerous to have firefighters going back inside, but it seemed like a majority of the tenants had already gotten out safe and sound. Peter quickly made his way down to the ground, stopping once he arrived near the crowd that had gathered. Some of the people cried out happily when they saw him, it felt good to not be on the publics bad side at the moment considering the events in his personal life. 

  
_Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t. Think. Ugh!_

  
“Spider-Man, thank God! We could really use your help.” Peter turned to one of the firemen approaching him.

 

“No problem. Do you know how many are left?” He had to focus. He had to think about getting into that building and not dying and not getting anyone else killed. _Not_ about his stupid feelings. 

 

“Just three, I think. We heard ‘em calling out, but it’s too dangerous to get into that area of the building. Half the damn ceiling is collapsed on the fourth floor.” The man shook his head with a grim expression. Peter just nodded back in understanding and immediately webbed up to a fourth story window and crashed through it into the apartment complex. 

 

The air was replaced with thick black smoke and even with the mask covering his nose and mouth he felt as if he were suffocating for a moment. After a few hacking coughs he managed to find his voice and start calling out for the survivors. He forced his way through the fire and debris, approaching the area that looked worst. The area where the ceiling collapsed was pretty obvious and it looked like it happened right in the middle of the hallway, making it impossible for the people on the other side to escape. 

 

He heard crying - it was soft, but it was definitely coming from within the wrecked area. He carefully began moving forward, moving pieces of rubble in his way to form some sort of a path. He could feel his Spidey Senses starting to tingle. It wasn’t urgent, but it was an obvious warning that the building probably wouldn't hold for much longer. 

 

Finally, he saw them. A man probably around his age and a young girl who couldn’t be more than twelve years old were huddled in an area the fire had yet to reach. The man was pointedly keeping the girl facing a certain way and hugging her as she cried. The guy noticed Peter first, eyes snapping up to watch him approach. 

 

“Spider-Man!” His voice sounded choked from all the smoke. The girl looked up as well, directing her tearful gaze at Peter. He could see hope shining behind her eyes and was quick to kneel down and reassure them.   
  
  
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you both out, okay?” They both nodded back at him and he turned around and motioned for the guy to get on his back while he took the girl into his arms. He heard a small gasp from the girl in front of him as she caught sight of something to their left and quickly ducked her face into the crook of Peter’s neck. When he looked over he saw exactly what made her react that way. 

 

The third person he was supposed to be saving was there, half crushed under a large portion of the collapsed ceiling. There was a lot of blood and the man seemed to be badly burned, it was horrible. Peter could barely stomach it and it was most definitely not something a little girl should have to see. This thought is what compelled him to start moving forward - that and the tingling in his brain growing more distracting by the minute. 

 

“That guy pushed us out of the way. It’s sad, you know-“ he breaks off into a cough for a moment. “Always kept to himself, but he was helpin’ everyone get out when the fire started.” 

 

Peter nodded. “And it won’t be for nothing, we’re getting you out of here.” He could see the window he’d originally came through and picked up his pace. His Spidey senses were going crazy as he pushed rubble out of the way one-handed. 

 

“Hold on tight!” He made it just in time, shooting a web out the window and ducking through. He swung down towards the crowd and heard cheers erupt as they touched the ground. He let the man drop down and take the little girl from his arms as medics approached them.  
 

A loud noise sounds behind them caused Peter to flinch. When he turned he saw the right side of the complex coming down. The firemen had already sprung back into action and were hosing down the building in attempt to douse the flames. 

   
With all the media reporters busy catching this happen, he slipped away and webbed up to a nearby building out of sight. Arrangements were being made for the tenants and the firemen had everything under control, he wasn't needed anymore anyway. 

He decided to spend the rest of the night on the ledge of the roof, facing the burning building. It was oddly calming to watch the flames as they slowly began to die out. He sat there for a long time, until the flames were extinguished and the crows had dispersed. The rest would be dealt with in the morning so there was no use in anyone hanging around all night.  
  
  
The last firetruck pulled away from the scene and Peter’s eyes shifted back towards the slightly smoking rubble. He stayed like that for a while before standing up to stretch his sore muscles. He paused with his arms over his head when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

He focused in on the rubble again and there was another shift.

_Shit._

   
Peter hurried down back to the rubble, pulling pieces away until a figure was visible. The man he had just revealed was instantly hacking and pulling fresh air into his lungs while Peter silently began to panic. 

 

“Sir! Are you all right? Scratch that, dumb question. How are you-? I need to get you to a hospital right away!” His hands hovered uselessly over the man, who really didn’t look like he should be alive right now much less moving around like he was. 

 

The man looks up and Peter almost winces, he’s covered in burns and it must be incredibly painful. The man suddenly slapped his hands away, leaving Peter completely stunned. 

 

“How about you leave me the fuck alone? I don’t need a hospital and I especially don’t need any help from _Spider-Man_.” The mans voice was extremely hoarse. The way he practically spat the heroes name was almost familiar to Peter, but he shook it off. He didn't need to start thinking about that now when he should be helping the half dead guy in front of him! 

 

“Listen, I don’t care if you hate Spider-Man! You need to go to a hospital- What are you doing?” Peter couldn’t believe it. The guy was just getting up and preparing to walk away!

 

“Leaving, I thought that was obvious.” He shifted back and forth like he was testing how well his legs would hold out if he decided to bolt away from Peter. 

 

“You can’t honestly expect me to let you go-“ 

 

“How about this, I promise to go to the hospital and you stay the fuck away from me. Deal?” The man countered. 

 

“What is your problem? Can I at least get you in a cab? You’re covered in burns!” Why the hell did this weird shit always happen to him? 

 

“Looked like this before the damn fire, no big deal. Sure, call a cab. Whatever. Just get off my back, Webs.” He was already walking away as he spoke, Peter following close behind. The nickname slip made them both stop in their tracks. 

 

“Webs?” The name came out choked. 

 

“ _Fuck._ ” 

 

Peter didn’t get a chance to say anything else. One second the man was in front of him and the next he was down the street and hailing a taxi, leaving Peter behind to wonder what the hell had just happened. 

 

“Wade?” He let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Of course he hadn’t wanted anything to do with him! On top of their fight from a couple days ago, Wade had never wanted Spider-Man to see his face. If things were messed up before, they were royally fucked now. There wasn’t any way to avoid it, but he still felt as if he was responsible. He just outed the other man - even if he had no intention of doing so!  
The image of Wade crushed under the rubble of the fallen apartment complex flashed in his mind. 

 

“ _Always kept to himself, but he was helpin’ everyone get out when the fire started.”_

 

That was Wade. Wade always hid himself away because he thought he was a freak, but he hadthrown his insecurities away to help all those people. If there was any possible way to feel worse about yelling at Wade on the roof a couple days ago, Peter had found it. 

 

If only Wade didn’t bolt every time they saw each other maybe he could tell him how stupid and sorry he was? He let out a deep sigh and scrubbed a hand over his masked face. 

 

Maybe in a couple days he would stop being a hypocrite and actually work up the courage to follow through on that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I give myself an inch and I take a mile. Sorry for coming back with this chapter so late. (Especially because this chapter is just angst, oops.)
> 
> Edit: Now with chapter art! Thank you for being patient!


	4. Got Me Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes to Aunt May's.  
> Thing's seem good for a change, but The Parker Luck just won't allow that.

Peter currently slumped on his couch in the living area of his apartment. The television was playing some show he couldn’t care less about, it was purely on for background noise. Recently, his work had been taking over his entire life. Every second he could spend as Spider-Man was a blessing and being in costume so often gave him extra time to take pictures for The Bugle so he could make enough money for rent. 

 

Sometimes he really felt like punching himself for not taking Tony up on an internship. It was mostly stupid pride that made him tell Tony that he wanted to wait. He wanted to graduate with his degree and get the job based on his work and not purely through connections. If he’d gotten an internship there would be no point in finishing up college and that was something he really wanted to do, for himself and also to make his aunt proud. 

 

His cell phone suddenly started to buzz beside him on the couch. He glanced over and saw from the caller ID it was Aunt May, she always did have perfect timing.He swiftly slid his thumb across the screen and put the phone up to his ear as he sucked in a breath, preparing his most convincing everything-is-fine voice. 

 

“Heeey, Aunt May!”   
  
  
“Peter Parker, I haven’t heard from you in weeks and all you can say is ‘hey’?” Peter winces, he usually called Aunt May to check in on her once a week. He may have skipped a couple weeks since he’d talked to Tony about Deadpool.

 

“Yeah, I’m really sorry Aunt May. I’ve been swamped with work for school and The Bugle and finals are only two weeks away-"

 

“Okay, okay. I still think you should take a break, Peter. Have you been eating right at least? I know how you get when you’re preoccupied. Why don’t you come here tomorrow for dinner?” 

 

Peter is about to protest, but she’s right - he hasn’t been eating enough. Honestly, he hadn’t gotten groceries in well over a week and his kitchen was looking extremely empty.   
  
“Okay, that sounds good. I’ll come over tomorrow, sometime between three and four?” He prays that he’s gotten himself together enough this past week. She’s his aunt and knows him better than probably anyone. He knows if anyone can read the heartbreak on his face, it’s her.  
  
_‘Oh my God, Pete. Did you just call it heartbreak? Really? What are you, a teenage girl? Oh no, your bromance with Deadpool ended and now you have to cry yourself to sleep every night and wake up every morning in a cesspool of your own tears and self-pity! You’re the one who fucked up, dummy! You haven’t heard or seen anything from Deadpool in a week, the guy probably up and left. Give. Up.’_

 

“Huh? Sorry, Aunt May I was thinking about somethin’ is all.” He shakes himself out of his thoughts after realizing May was calling his name. 

 

“It’s fine, Peter. Come over whenever you’re ready tomorrow. You know, it’s hard to believe a sweet boy like you doesn’t have a girlfriend to force you to eat every once in a while.” He chokes suddenly on his own spit at her words.

 

“Haha! Pfft- Aunt May, please. You know you’re the only important woman in my life! The one and only Mrs. Parker.” _Nice save, Pete._

 

He hears his aunt laugh on the other end of the line and smiles. 

 

“Alright, enough of that. It’s getting late, get some sleep so you can finish all your work on time tomorrow,” she chides gently. 

 

“Will do. See you tomorrow, Aunt May.” He waits for her goodbye before pressing the ‘end call’ button on his phone.   
  
Damn, he really hadn’t thought about girlfriends in months. It really had startled him when he tried to think of the last time he’d even tried to get a date.

 

_‘Probably because I’m so busy! Totally not because for a full month or two there I was thinking almost exclusively about sinfully short cheer skirts, tight spandex, and pompoms.’_

 

Wow, he should really just punch himself in the face.

 

Next step from ‘How To Stop Acting Like A Sad Piece Of Shit’ by Peter Parker: More work! He pushes up from the couch and ends up pulling out his laptop to start on his schoolwork. He feels a little guilty for doing so after telling Aunt May he would get some sleep. Unfortunately, the lab write-up doesn’t take long at all. He’s been powering through all his work with no problem now that he’s started blocking out the distracting thoughts that stuck with him the past couple months. 

 

He decided to start writing one of his term papers early and finishes that too. It’s disgusting how productive he’s being, really. He lets out a sigh and leans back in his desk chair. His eyes shift over to his closet where his suit is hidden behind regular clothing and decides a quick patrol isn’t out of the question. 

 

Without Aunt May as a distraction tomorrow, he might have actually driven himself crazy trying to find things to do. He really didn’t visit her as much as he should, either. He couldn’t help but feel guilty about neglecting her. There was an envelope sitting on his desk where he’d deposit some money from each paycheck so he could try and pay Aunt May back every once and a while for everything she’s done for him. Maybe he’d bring it tomorrow now that it had finally reached a substantial amount. 

 

Smiling, he sealed the envelope and set it on the edge of the desk so he wouldn't forget it tomorrow. It would be nice to take a break tomorrow, but for now, he was going to suit up and patrol until he was ready to pass out. 

 

* * *

 

He takes the subway for once in his life when he decides to actually walk to his aunt's apartment complex. It’s actually a nice change, seeing as he’s been webbing around non-stop this week. Plus, he didn’t have to change in and out of the costume just to get across town. 

 

As soon as he sits down in the subway car he regrets forgetting his headphones. He has too much time to think so he ends up aimlessly checking through his phone even though he didn’t actually have any alerts to check on. 

 

Finally, the subway reaches his stop and he shuffles out into the station and up the stairs. Once he’s above ground again he shivers, the air outside is much chillier now that it’s almost the end of fall. He pulls his jacket tighter around him and heads in the direction of his aunts complex. When he arrives he punches in the code he now knows by heart and heads up the stairs to the third floor. 

 

‘ _Deep breath in, Peter._ ’ He thinks to himself as he schools his face into a casual expression, fake smile in place. Hopefully, it looks genuine enough that Aunt May won’t question anything. 

 

It only takes a minute for Aunt May to get to the door after he knocks. His smile actually turns genuine when he sees her, he really should visit more often. He’s immediately pulled into a tight hug and automatically brings his own arms up to wrap around her in return. When she pulls back she frowns a bit and he can’t help but panic. 

 

_I knew it, I knew it! She can definitely see the heartbreak - and yes, I’m calling it heartbreak! How does she always know something's wrong?_

 

“Oh Peter, you look exhausted. Has work and school really been that bad lately?” She cups his cheek and he lets out a relieved chuckle. 

 

“Yeah, but it’s fine. I’ll be great as soon as finals are out of the way, so don’t worry about it.” He gives her a reassuring smile and she lets him go, stepping back to give him room to come inside. She pushes him in the direction of the living area, where he takes off his jacket and drapes it over one of the chairs before taking a seat on the couch. 

 

“Hold on just a second,” she says as she disappears into the kitchen, only to come back a moment later with a cup of hot chocolate. 

 

“Oh my God, Aunt May. You’re an angel, I have actually been sent to heaven.” He takes the warm mug from her hands and brings the cup up to his face, humming in appreciation. He melts back into the couch, letting the hot chocolate cool a bit before taking tiny sips and letting the mug warm his hands. Aunt May comes and sits down next to him after grabbing her own mug and they sit in comfortable silence for just a moment. 

 

She speaks first, of course. “What have you been up to lately, Peter? I assume your classes are going well, especially since you’ve been working so hard.” 

 

“Yeah, my grades are good right now. I’ve had this sudden burst of motivation to get things done lately.” He doesn’t say that it’s because of his constant need of distraction from his thoughts. He also, of course, doesn’t mention he’s almost working himself to death as Spider-Man every night. 

 

It was a surprise this morning when he walked into his kitchen and noticed he actually didn’t have any food whatsoever. He ended up skipping both breakfast and lunch instead of going to get food - it was just one of those mornings where all he wanted to do was shower and watch some mind-numbing shows on T.V.

 

As if to prove his point, his stomach actually gives a loud grumble, shocking himself and his aunt. 

 

“Peter! Didn’t you eat today?” She’s immediately up again and in the kitchen before Peter can even get a word out. She returns a minute later with a protein bar in hand.   
  
  
“Here Peter,” she hands the snack to him and sits back down. “This should hold you over until dinner. You’re lucky I’m cooking such a big meal, you know? You really should eat more. Your health is more important than your schoolwork, dear.”

 

“I know, Aunt May. I just ran out of food at my place and have been meaning to run to the grocery store, but keep getting caught up with working. I promise I’ll go out for groceries tomorrow, okay?” He smiles reassuringly at her and she sighs in defeat. 

 

“And you didn't need to cook so much, jeez! You don’t have to go all out for me or anything, what were you thinking?” He grins at her jokingly as he unwraps the protein bar. 

 

She laughs, “If I want to cook for my nephew, I will. Plus, I invited one of the new neighbors over tonight so it won’t just be you and me.” 

 

“Whaaa? Who?” His words end up a little muted by the bite he’d just taken from the protein bar. Aunt May shakes her head at him and he clamps his mouth shut with a tight-lipped, apologetic smile. 

 

“He’s one of those poor people who were caught in that fire from last weekend. He just moved into the complex and it didn’t seem like he had much with him. He was very sweet so I invited him to come eat with us.” 

 

“Oh yeah, saw that. The whole place was destroyed, it was awful.” His mind instantly wanders back to Wade, burned and broken as he climbed out of the rubble. The annoying sting behind his eyes makes him snap back to the present, he couldn't afford an emotional slip-up in front of Aunt May. She’s already caught on to something, though, just like he knew she would. 

 

“Did you know anyone who lived there? College friends maybe?” she frowned and places a hand on his upper arm in comfort. 

 

“No, no. It’s just sad stuff. Good thing all those firefighters got all those people out.” he smiles sadly. 

 

“Yes, and Spider-Man saving those poor kids who were trapped inside. That boss of yours has some nerve calling him a menace in the paper after that.” She withdraws her hand. 

 

“Oh! I almost forgot. Speaking of my job with _The Bugle_ , I’ve been saving up money to pay you back for everything so…” He reaches over to his jacket's inside pocket to remove the envelope. He turns and holds it out to Aunt May, who takes it hesitantly. 

 

“Peter, you don’t need to pay me back for anything.” She looks inside the envelope and gasps. “I can’t take this from you, sweetheart. You don’t owe me-“ 

 

“I want to give it to you. I’ve been saving it for a long time after you started helping me so much with college tuition. Please take it?” He sees she’s still reluctant, but she sighs and smiles at him. 

 

“Don’t think I won’t be slipping this back to you, Peter.” She gets up to go deposit the envelope somewhere safe and he gets up to follow behind her, laughing. He throws the wrapper to the protein bar in the trash and places his mug in the sink to be washed later. 

 

He felt so light right now, it’s been so long since he’s genuinely laughed that it’s shocking to him. He really did need this. 

 

“Why don’t you help me finish preparing some of this food? I could use the extra hand.” She motions to all the food taking up all the space on the counter and his mouth drops open in shock. 

 

“This is all for three people!?” He chuckles as he moves to the sink to wash his hands before touching anything. 

 

“I know you, Peter. If our guest has an appetite that’s anything like yours, I’m sure we have just enough. And you know I like when you have left-overs to take home.” She smiles and motions him over to help finish cutting vegetables. 

 

He ends up helping her chop a few things and then get a couple dishes into the oven to ensure they’d be cooked in time. He would never be able to keep track of when everything needs to be taken out, but luckily May is an expert on that. 

 

“Are we doing anything for dessert?” He can't help the hopeful look on his face. May nods and hands him a cookbook with different desserts in it. 

 

“There’s vanilla ice cream already, so just pick something you want to go with it and we can make it.” She smiles when Peter lets out a cheer. 

 

“You’re the best Aunt May!” He pulls a pair of reading glasses out of his pocket, he always wore them in front of his aunt. After he became Spider-Man he obviously didn’t need them anymore since his senses were heightened so much, but Aunt May didn't know that. 

 

“You look good in glasses, I don’t know why you don’t wear them anymore,” May comments. 

 

Peter groans, “I look even dorkier than normal in these, it’s a blessing I only need them to read.” She smacks his arm with no real force behind it.  
  
“You aren’t a dork, Peter.”

 

“Sure, sure.” He smiles and brushes it off. 

 

“How about-“ Aunt May starts to point out one of the desserts to Peter when there’s a knock at the door. 

 

“Oh, that must be him. Stay here and find something you like and I’ll be right back.” She’s already loosening her apron and heading out of the kitchen to answer the door. 

 

“Okie Dokie.” Once she’s out of the kitchen he hops up to sit on the counter top and goes back to looking through the book. He hears his Aunt greeting her new neighbor warmly but isn’t paying too much attention to what they’re saying. He smiles, his aunt is always kind and courteous to anyone who was in a bad place. It was familiar and made him even happier that he decided to come for dinner. 

 

He was so focused on the cookbook he almost missed Aunt May reassuring the man that Peter was a “nice boy”, it made him chuckle a bit to himself. Peter was probably the least threatening looking person, it seemed silly that his aunt had to reassure this guy that Peter wouldn’t bite.

 

He’s wrapped up in reading another recipe when they enter the kitchen but glances up briefly to acknowledge their presence at least. 

 

“Hey,” he says distractedly. There’s a beat of silence before he hears his aunt let out a huff. 

 

“Peter Benjamin Parker,” he winces at the use of his full name. “Put the book down and be polite. I need to use the restroom so I expect you to be a good host and make conversation. I did not raise you like this - and get off the counter.” She scoldingly swats his knee as she passes by him towards the hallway that leads to the rest of the apartment. 

 

“Sorry, Aunt May!” He calls after her after she’s exited the kitchen. He scratches the back of his head with a bit of an embarrassed flush from being scolded like a child in front of this stranger. 

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“ That’s when he finally looks over at the man to address him directly. He’s shocked upon seeing the other man and fumbles with the cookbook, clumsily letting it drop to the floor.  
  
  


_Shit, shit, shit! It’s him, of course, it's him! The Parker Luck strikes again!_

 

He could almost feel his face grow warmer, this time in shame. It was Wade - Wade Wilson of all people had just moved into his aunt's apartment complex! Wade Wilson was going to be eating dinner with him and his aunt! 

 

He only felt like more of an ass as he watched the expression of confusion and shame shift across Wade’s face. He’d totally forgotten about the scars and just how self-conscious Wade is of them. Wade didn’t know he was Spider-Man or that he was having a severe internal crisis right now. All Wade knew was that Peter had freaked out upon seeing his face.

 

He _really_ wished he could punch himself right now. 

 

The scars were not the thing that shocked him, in fact, Wade looked really good right now. After the fire, his skin had been angry and unhealed, but now it looked far less agitated. He would open his mouth to apologize again, but what would it be for?

_‘Sorry, I wasn’t freaking out over your skin or anything. I actually think you’re really attractive and don’t care about your scars! Anyway, I freaked out because I’m actually Spider-Man and we’re not supposed to be talking right now. You’re very mad at me and it is definitely not something we can just discuss over dinner. Especially not in front of my aunt, she doesn’t even know I’m Spider-Man.’_ Haha, good one Peter. 

 

Wade looks down at the cookbook that is on the floor at the same time he does. God, he must look like a huge idiot right now. He quickly jumps off the counter and leans down, muttering a string of sorry’s just as Wade bends down saying: “I’ll get it.” 

 

Their foreheads bump together as they both grab for the book. It has to be the most disgustingly cliche thing that has ever happened in his life. His glasses have knocked askew as he looks up, wincing. Turns out Wade has the same reaction because his eyes meet blue and he realizes their faces are now only inches apart. 

 

He’s about to have a heart attack, positive that’s the reason his heart is beating so erratically out of his chest right now. It’s been weeks, _fuck_ , months now without any real contact from Wade beside their argument on the roof and the brief meeting the night of the fire. Now they were practically breathing each other's air.

 

Peter makes a small strangled sound in the back of his throat before flopping backward, putting space between them in the most ungraceful way possible. He’s quick to pull his knees in towards his chest and push his glasses up to rest on top of his head so that he could cover his face with his hands and groan. 

 

“I am so, _so_ sorry. I’m such an idiot, oh my God. This isn’t really what I’m like all the time- I mean, I am a mess, but it’s not usually this bad? Shit.” _Perfect._

 

Surprisingly, Wade starts laughing, which has Peter peeking through his fingers at the man in front of him. Why did that instantly make him feel on top of the world? Why did making Wade laugh make him feel better than anything he’d done as Spider-Man in the past two months?

 

“Um…” He lowered his hands from his face slowly, he knows his cheeks are probably still a little red but it’s not nearly as bad as before. 

 

“Sorry, you’re just really fucking cute,” he picks up the cookbook from the ground. “Oh man, do we get to decide on a dessert together? Your aunt may actually be an angel, man.” 

 

Wade may have diverted the conversation away from the comment, but Peters' brain was still stuck on being called ‘cute’. When he finally caught up to the rest of Wade’s words the man was chuckling at him again. Shit, he must have had a stupid look on his face while he was zoning out. 

 

“Yeah, she’s pretty great,” he says while frowning a bit. He can’t help the purse of his lips when the other man keeps laughing at him. He’s about to push himself off the ground when Wade’s hand appears in front of his face.His eyes flicker up to look at the Mercs face and realizes he must want Peter to take his hand, not just stare at it. He quickly lifts his own hand to take Wade’s scarred one. 

 

As Wade pulls him up he starts going off about his favorite desserts and Peter has to smile at how normal this feels. He really missed hearing Wade talk non-stop about, well, just about anything. Peter plucks his glasses from the top of his head so that he can fold them and put them back in his pocket now that they aren’t in use. 

 

It’s almost like the world is giving him a second chance right now. A second chance to not be an asshole and actually be friends with Wade. He runs a hand through his hair a little nervously before sticking out his hand, cutting Wade off.

 

“Peter Parker,” he says “Sorry, this wasn’t exactly the best introduction.” Wade looks a little surprised but it’s wiped away quickly as the man take his hand firmly and shakes it. 

 

“Wade Wilson. I’m honestly hoping you haven’t heard of me, but I’m sure you have.” He chuckles nervously and Peter has to bite his lip to keep from blurting out a response without thinking. He really had to think carefully about this or risk giving himself away. 

 

“Well,” he began. “Everyone in New York has to have some idea of who you are, right? You did all that hero stuff with Spider-Man a while back. You were in the papers, I’d know - I, uh, work for _The Bugle_.” He winces a bit at the mention of his alias, hoping they can just gloss over that. 

 

“You’ve written about me?” He says it in a teasing tone, but Peter can read the hint of surprise behind it. 

 

“Ha, no not a writer. I’m a photographer.” He smiled sheepishly.

 

“Oh shit, you’re the kid who takes all those action shots of Spidey! Wow, this is kind of weird. I totally had your photos on the walls of my old apartment. I was a pretty big Spidey fan and you’re like the only person who ever got pictures of him that weren’t blurry as shit-“ Wade kept rambling on and Peter listened despite the sudden pang of guilt. _Was_ a Spider-Man fan, _past tense_. Right. 

 

“What’s your secret? How do you get so close to the guy, huh? There’s no way you were just in the right place at the right time that often.” Wade leaned on the counter next to Peter with a grin spread across his face. 

 

“Uh, well…” _Think Peter, come up with something good. Something that won’t blow your cover. You’re taking a long time to answer, he’s going to know you’re lying. Say. Something. Say anything!_

 

“I-I know him.” The both stare at each other in shock and silence. 

 

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was originally supposed to get through the whole visit to Aunt May's in one chapter. Obviously, that didn't happen. 
> 
> I ended up doing the sketches for this chapter, which Zin lined and coloured for me. The original sketches are on my tumblr [here](http://stuckontrickstermode.tumblr.com/post/145317820809/doodles-that-happened-while-trying-to-figure-out)


	5. I'm A Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner at Aunt May's continues to be an emotional roller coaster, May begins a casual game of matchmaker, and Peter has trouble with words (as usual).

Peter knew he’d messed up as soon as the words had come out of his mouth.

 

_Nice one, Pete. How are you going to get out of this one?_

 

“You _know_ him?” Peter was like a fish out of water, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. Wade, in turn, raised a non-existent eyebrow at him. 

 

“ _How_ do you know him? The guy is usually all about keeping his secrets and shit. Unless it’s with the Avengers, I guess.” Peter tries hard not to wince at the disappointment in Wade’s tone as he mentions the Avengers.

 

“Well, I don’t know him. I mean,” Peter sighs. “He knows I take pictures for the paper and sometimes he gives me a heads up so I can get a good shot. This is the only way I make money so I guess he’s just being a good guy?” It all comes out in a rush and he hopes it’s convincing enough for Wade to consider it the truth. 

 

“So you don’t know who he is under the mask?” Wade asks skeptically. 

 

Peter almost opens his mouth to confirm that he doesn’t, but a sudden pang of guilt stops him in his tracks. He doesn’t want to lie, this is already bad enough. He has to do something, though. He shakes his head as his answer, making sure to paste a smile on his face so Wade won’t think anything of the non-vocal answer. 

 

“Guess that makes sense. Spidey looking out for the little guys,” he trails off and Peter fumbles with his words to try and distract from the current conversation. Anything to get the topic away from Spider-Man. 

 

“Little guy? I’d have to disagree with you on that one, pal.” He arched an eyebrow, challenging Wade to return his banter. Wade laughs, instantly calming Peter. 

 

“Yeah, okay. I’m gonna need some proof.” A sly grin spread across Wade’s face as he glanced pointedly down at Peter’s crotch. Peter felt his face flush in realization. Were they flirting right now? This wasn’t what was supposed to happen! 

 

He was about to blurt out an answer, probably an incredibly embarrassing one when Aunt May walked back into the kitchen. 

 

“Are you boys getting along?” She’s smiling like she knows something. Had she heard them? Oh God, if she had heard any of that he would die. He could not sit through a whole dinner with his aunt thinking she has to hook him up with the new neighbor. 

 

“Yep! Petey was just about to tell me what desert we’re going to be having tonight.” Wade looks from Aunt May back to him with a grin still plastered on his face. It took a moment for Peter’s brain to regain control, but he managed to nod at his aunt. 

 

“I was thinking you should make brownies since yours are the best, Wade’s never had them and warm brownies are great with ice cream.” He might have seemed a little too excited about the brownies. He heard Wade snicker beside him. 

 

Yep, definitely too excited about the brownies. 

 

“Well,” he chuckled. “Better get started on those, right?” Peter ducked his head and turned to start grabbing ingredients out of the cabinets. 

 

“Now Peter, if we’re both cooking who is going to entertain our guest?” She puts a hand on his shoulder to stall his frantic search for a whisk. 

 

“I’ll do the baking. You boys go set the table and then sit down with Wade until everything is ready.” She pushed him gently back in Wade’s direction while motioning to the small stack of plates and silverware sitting on the countertop. 

 

“You’re sure you don’t want help? I mean-“ He saw his aunt and Wade share a look before the other man was cutting him off and scooping up the dinnerware and pushing Peter towards the dining table. 

 

“Thank’s Mrs. P! I’ll make sure he’s on his best behavior!” Wade winks back at her as they leave and Peter is left to wonder what the hell is happening as he’s manhandled into the conjoined room. 

 

“Hey, Pete? You gonna’ just stand there looking pretty or are you gonna’ help?” Wade waved the handful of silverware in his face, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

 

“Uh—Yeah, sorry.” It took a lot of effort not to blush again; that was really happening too often lately.He takes the offered silverware and once Wade starts laying out plates he follows behind to distribute forks and knives for the three of them.  
  
“We can put something on the T.V. while we wait if you want?” Peter offers, starting to head in the direction of the living area. Wade followed behind, joining Peter when he sat on the couch across from the television. Peter grabs the remote from off the coffee table, holding it out for Wade to take.

 

“Here, guests choice.” Wade takes the remote and their fingers brush. It shouldn’t be this easy to get his heart to feel like it’s about to burst out of his chest. 

 

_Especially over something as cliche as our hands touching, Christ._

 

He snapped his head forward again, facing the television. His hands were clasped in his lap as he tried not to fidget too much under Wade’s knowing smile. 

 

“You don’t live here, right? That technically makes you the guest too,” Wade comments as he begins flicking through channels. 

 

“You know, I already thought about making that comment but I’m positive my aunt would smack me for being such a smart-ass.” He laughs and sinks further into the couch. Wade laughs too and it makes the tension melt away.

 

They stay like that for fifteen minutes or so, making snide comments about the horrible show Wade had settled on. It feels too soon when Aunt May is calling them back to the dining table. They pull themselves from the couch and turn off the television, making their way over to the dinner table. When Peter sees the array of different foods set out for them he can practically feel himself drooling. 

 

“Oh my God,” he groans. “Aunt May, you’re an angel, I’m never leaving.” He takes a seat at the square table and Wade sits across from him with Aunt May on his right. 

 

“Yeah, I second that, mostly because I’m pretty sure I’ll be in a food coma after all this.” Wade is eyeing the food hungrily and Peter wonders how often he gets a warm meal that isn’t take-out. 

 

“Hush, both of you.” She’s smiling as she speaks. “Don’t eat too much or you won’t have anything to take home as leftovers.” She starts to serve herself, signaling for Peter and Wade to follow suit. 

 

—

 

Peter is in the kitchen, putting the leftovers from dinner into tubs. He makes sure to divide everything equally between himself and Wade while the man talks happily with his aunt in the conjoined room. He insisted that he take everything back to the kitchen to give his aunt a break, being the loving nephew he is. 

 

There were brownies left that they hadn’t eaten and Peter makes sure to give Wade more than him after seeing how much the man had liked them. Speaking of Wade, he could no longer hear his voice from the other room. Sure enough, when he turned around he saw his aunt and Wade coming into the kitchen to join him. 

 

“Aunt May, I said you didn't have to help with anything. You’ve spent enough time in the kitchen today. I’m just about to do the dishes-“ He’s cut off by Wade, who intercepts his reach for one of the dirty dishes to grab it himself. 

 

“I’ll help you do the dishes. Even though I’m totally dying after eating so much. I can’t just come here and eat all your food without doing something in return, though, right? I mean that would kind of make me a complete asshole.” Wade moves past Peter and starts to fill the sink with warm water. 

 

“Did you really just curse in front of my dear, sweet aunt?” Peter scolds and Wade rolls his eyes at him. 

 

“Please, Peter— I’m old, not a prude. We’re all adults.” She pats him on the back before turning to the living room. 

 

“I’ll leave you two to the dishes then. Come join me when you're done.” She turns to wink at them before pulling Peter close for a hug. He thinks it’s just her being sweet as usual, but she uses their closeness as an excuse to whisper to Peter. 

 

“You certainly don’t need me to get in the way of your flirting.” She pulls back and her face gives nothing away, but Peter is mortified. He hopes that Wade didn’t hear. Hopes and prays to whatever force can hear him that Wade didn’t—  
  


A glance at Wade reveals there might be a red tint to his cheeks as well. God, his aunt of all people had made Wade Wilson blush, who would have guessed. It was nothing compared to the humiliated flush on his own cheeks, though.   
  


“Oh my God,” is all he can get out at the moment followed by a soft “Sorry.” 

 

“Your aunt is really something.” Wade shakes his head and chuckles. Peter looks up at him with a sheepish smile. 

 

“Yeah, she’s like the sweetest lady on the face of the planet but that doesn’t mean she won’t tease me every chance she gets.” He chuckles along with Wade and starts moving the dirty dishes into the soapy water in the sink. 

 

“You okay with drying?” He holds out a clean dishtowel for the other man to take. The faster they got this done the faster he could go home and hide for the rest of his life, avoidingfurther embarrassment. 

 

“Yep,” Wade chirps. He happily takes the towel from Peter’s hands and leans against the counter, waiting to be passed a plate. 

 

Peter makes quick work of washing the first plate so he can pass it on to Wade. He tried very hard not to flinch when Wade’s fingers brushed his for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He was really going to have to tell Aunt May to stay out of his love life. That is if this even counted as a “love life”. He wasn’t even trying to flirt with Wade! It’s not his fault the guy can’t quit messing around for one second. It was Wade’s fault he couldn’t get his feelings straightened out. No pun intended. 

 

“Hey, you’re not getting all weird on me because of the flirting thing are you?” Wade broke him out of his thoughts and Peter groaned as he dropped the silverware he was washing up back into the sink in surprise, causing water to splash onto his shirt. 

 

“I—I’m not. Shit— I mean, sure it’s embarrassing to have my aunt thinking she needs to hook me up with her neighbor, but it’s not like we were actually flirting so…” He trailed off and a weird look crossed Wade’s face. Great, way to put your foot in your mouth again Parker. 

 

“Well, what I mean is— I’m really making a mess of this, as usual.” He sighed and grabbed another towel, using that to dab at his wet shirt. He couldn’t believe his luck lately, Wade Wilson was going to hate both Spider-Man _and_ Peter Parker.

 

“Yeah, you’re a mess,” Wade starts seriously. “It’s more like watching a newborn puppy fumble around, but messy is an accurate description.” He’s grinning now and Peter shakes his head, flicking the towel at the Merc.

 

“‘M not a puppy,” he grumbles. “Unless by saying that you mean I’m incredibly stupid and—“

 

“Adorable.” Wade finishes. “If you weren’t about to say that I think you’re adorable I’m going to be so offended ‘cause,” He leans in close and Peter feels his face heat up like it always does when Wade and he are in close proximity to each other. 

 

“I was _definitely_ flirting with you.” 

 

_Oh._

 

“I—I just thought that was your personality.” Because it was. That was how Wade acted with practically everyone!

 

“Honestly? Can’t say you’re wrong, but I totally thought we had a connection.” Wade puts on an exaggerated pout and Peter has to roll his eyes, though it does put a smile back on his face. 

 

“There’s definitely _something_ there.” Peter shoots back sarcastically. 

 

“See! I knew you’d be able to see it, Petey.” Wade reaches across him to grab the silverware Peter had cleaned earlier so he could begin to dry it off. Peter takes the hint, falling back into their routine as well. 

It doesn’t take long to get to a point where they’re almost done with the dishes. They had been chatting idly about whatever came to mind, most of the talking coming from Wade. He was always easily rambling about something. He’s in the middle of one of these rants when Peter interrupts. 

 

“Wade?” Peter asks. Wade stops and gives an inquisitive hum. 

 

“I do like it you know…?” He trails off slightly embarrassed.

 

Wade turns fully to him now, putting the last plate he’d been drying down and giving him all his attention. “Like what? Bisquick? Listen, it might be an easy alternative, but I’m telling you there’s nothing like pancakes made from scratch. I’ll totally have to make you some— ”

 

“No, not Bisquick.” Peter can’t help a snort of amusement. “I meant this? Talking to you? It sounds really stupid and sappy, but yeah. Tonight was the most fun I’ve had in the past couple months. Wow, that makes me sound really sad. I’ve just been in kind of a slump lately, it’s sort of depressing and stupid.” He’s probably overshared. He’s been running different words through his head over and over the whole time they were washing dishes and it still didn’t come out right. He didn’t exactly want to vomit up all that emotional stuff, but it just kept coming. The exact definition of what it means to word vomit. 

 

“I uh— Yeah, me too?” Wade seemed like he was trying not to say more, he looked conflicted. Peter hated to think that he’d said something so wrong that Wade couldn’t even come up with a witty response. Even more than that, he hated thinking Wade was arguing with the voices inside his head, which seemed like a very real possibility with how hard Wade was biting his lip— Like he was trying not to blurt something out that wasn’t for Peter’s ears. 

 

“Yeah.” Peter quickly grabbed a towel to dry off so that he could gently place one of his hands on Wade’s upper arm. Wade flinched a little, but the touch had successfully gotten him to focus his eyes on Peter instead of some point in the distance. Peter smiled like nothing was wrong, trying to ease Wade back into their conversation and out of the one in his head. 

 

“We should hang out sometime? You can make those pancakes you were talking about. I need some serious proof that you can make them from scratch and have them taste better than Betty Crocker’s.” Peter let out a small sigh of relief when a grin broke out across Wade’s face.

 

“You’re gonna’ eat your words, Pete. Also, some awesome pancakes made by yours truly,” Wade teased. Peter laughed and then removed his hand from Wade’s arm so he could reach into his pocket for his phone. 

 

“Here. You should put your number in so we can set something up.” He unlocked his phone and then held it out for Wade to take. While Wade did that Peter went about putting all the dishes back where they belong in the cabinets. 

 

He couldn’t keep the smile off his face, he was going to be able to hang out with Wade again. He could actually be friends with him like nothing had ever happened. The smile started to slip. 

 

_And all I have to do is keep lying to him. Keep pretending I’m not the person who hurt him in the first place._

 

He swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat. He was so wrapped up in how much better this made _himself_ feel that he didn’t even think about what a dick he was being to Wade. 

 

“Peter?” He turned around to face Wade, hopefully not looking as sick with guilt as he felt. Wade was holding out his phone for Peter to take back, which he did with shaking hands. 

 

“Are you feeling okay?” Wade asked, his expression conveying genuine concern. _Shit._

He leaned in close to look at Peter, who pointedly kept his eyes anywhere but Wades face. 

 

“Yeah, I just uh— I haven’t gotten much sleep lately. I’m a little tired.” Wade didn’t look completely convinced, but Aunt May decided to walk in at that moment. 

 

“Are you boys done with the dishes? It’s getting late, I hadn’t realized.” She stopped upon seeing the both of them standing maybe a little too close to not seem intimate. 

 

_Why is my life such a complete and utter mess?_

 

“I was just saying the same thing, Aunt May! We should really let you get some rest.” He quickly steps around Wade to envelop his aunt in a hug. 

 

“Oh. Well, at least let me put your leftovers in a bag. You have to walk a lot farther than Wade does to get home.” They pull apart and she goes about doing just that. Wade stacks up his leftovers while Peter runs to the living room to grab his coat and shrug it on. When he returns to the kitchen his aunt and Wade are exchanging small talk and Wade has his leftovers tucked under his arm while Aunt May holds his in a grocery bag. 

 

“Alright, let’s get you two on your way.” She smiles when she looks up at Peter and he returns it, taking the grocery bag from her hands when she walks over with Wade close behind. 

 

They stand in the hallway for a few moments, May telling him to be careful on the way home as usual. He wraps her in another hug and kisses her cheek, promising he’ll make another visit next week. Wade looks a bit awkward as he thanks Peter’s aunt for her hospitality and is definitely taken off guard when Aunt May pulls him down into a hug. Peter tries to hide a chuff of laughter when he sees Wade blush. Twice in one night, his aunt is really on a roll. 

 

“Wade, you can come over whenever you want.” She releases him from the hug and steps back to address them both. “You boys go get some sleep now, be safe.” 

 

“Will do, Aunt May,” Peter says as he lifts his hand to wave goodbye. 

 

“Goodnight, boys.” She says stepping back into her apartment. They both say goodnight in return and she closes the door with a smile. 

 

“My place is near the stairs so lead the way, Pete,” Wade says, motioning down the hall. Peter nods and turns to walk down the hall, Wade at his side. When they reach Wade’s door they stop and turn to each other a little awkwardly. 

 

“So… You’re not going to forget to text me right? I used emojis in my contact name and everything.” Wade says breaking the silence. 

 

“Huh? Yeah, of course, I won’t.” Peter says fishing his phone out of his pocket and opening up his contact list. He sees only one contact that is a series of emojis instead of an actual name. 

 

“What is this supposed to mean? Skull, poop, L?” Peter looks up at Wade who looks like he’s trying to keep it together but ends up bent over with the force of his laughter. 

 

“I—It’s not,” Wade can’t seem to get the words out between gasps for air and seemingly unending laughter. 

 

“I really have no idea what I’m missing here?” He feels a little embarrassed that he’s clearly missing whatever hilarious joke he’s made of himself. 

 

“S-Sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry just let me—“ Wade takes a second to calm himself and take deep breaths as he wipes a few tears from his eyes. “Man… That was just the best thing I think I’ve ever heard.” Peter rolls his eyes as he continues to wait for an answer.   
  
“The skull is like death, right? And then the poo and the L. So if you smash all that together you get—“

 

“Deadpool…” Peter answers, completely deadpan. For some reason, this sends Wade into peels of laughter, which Peter has to wait out yet again.   
  
  
“Yeah, yeah. Stop laughing, it wasn’t that easy to guess! I bet other people wouldn’t automatically assume that the skull was meant to represent the word ‘dead’.” Wade says something in between gasps that sound something like ‘greatest ad ever’ and ‘people totally got it’.  
  
  
“Shut up, Wade. I’m hip, I totally understand your stupid emoji thing.”

 

“Hip!” is all Wade gasps out between more laughter and soon Peter can’t keep a straight face either and is laughing right alongside Wade, tears eventually springing to his eyes as well. 

 

“This—This is so stupid.” He wipes away a tear, still having a slight giggle fit as Wade’s laughter finally dies down. When he looks up at the other he’s met with the biggest smile he’d seen on Wade yet. 

 

“Fuck, you’re adorable.” Peter is glad that he’s so flushed from laughing or the blush on his cheeks would be pretty obvious. 

 

“I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as ‘adorable’, I’m a grown man.” Finally, the giggles he was trying to suppress die out and scrubs at his cheeks a little trying to will the blush away. 

 

“Dude, did you not hear yourself? You even snorted a little, so fucking cute.” Wade’s grin stayed in place as Peter rolled his eyes, he honestly hoped Wade hadn’t heard that. 

 

“Still, a grown man doesn’t want to be called ‘cute’,” He mutters. 

 

“Aw, you’re hot too, Pete. A total package!” Wade shifts the leftovers under his arm so he can get a key out of his pocket and open up his apartment door. 

 

“I’d invite you in, but I’m afraid I don’t put out on the first date.” Wade sighed and peter shook his head.

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Peter laughs again and Wades smile widens a little. “Goodnight, Wade.” He turns and starts walking to the stairs as Wade calls after him. 

 

“G‘Night, Baby Boy.” Peter freezes at the top of the stairs and turns back towards Wade’s door, but when he does it’s just in time to see it click closed. 

 

The walk home is kind of a blur. It’s not smart of him to zone out on the streets of New York at night, but an incident doesn’t occur so he only scolds himself a little bit. He fumbles with the keys to his own apartment before finally getting the door unlocked and letting himself into his apartment. It’s slightly warmer inside than it is outside and he’s thankful he won’t have to turn the heating on this early into the season. 

 

After locking the door behind him he shrugs off his coat and heads into the kitchen. He takes all the leftovers out and puts them into the fridge, frowning as he is once again faced with how empty it is. Groceries tomorrow, for sure.

 

Once he was finally washed up and in a fleecy pair of sleep pants, he climbed under the covers to attempt to cocoon himself in warmth. He was about to settle down to sleep when he caught sight of his phone resting on the bedside table. Would it look desperate to text Wade not even a full hour since they’d last seen each other? Maybe he could make it casual, something to just say he got home safe? He’d already sent a text to Aunt May like that so it’s not like it would look too weird. 

 

He snatches his phone off the table before he can change his mind and opens his phone to his contacts, scrolling to Wade’s contact name. Opening up a text, he started typing out a message. He probably went through a hundred different ways to say something so simple, but finally settled on something to send out. 

 

_‘Hey, I got home without getting mugged so that’s pretty cool. I hope this doesn’t wake you up or anything, but I had a lot of fun and wanted to thank you. So thanks!’_

 

He cringes. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that casual or cool. His phone vibrates in his hand, making him jump as he looks down to see Wade has already sent him a message back. 

 

_‘pft i dont sleep much anyway. it was real good meeting u petey and im glad u didnt get mugged! would have beat the shit out of whoever it was if you did’_

 

Peter smiled, the lack of grammar and capitalization really did fit Wade. Though, he did actually spell out the word ‘you’ in his last sentence. Peter tries not to think about how it might be because it’s more serious than the rest. 

 

_‘I can handle myself pretty well actually. I’m surprisingly strong.’_ Peter replies. 

 

_‘uh huh, cause ur not a little guy right?? im still gonna need proof’_

 

This again. Does he ignore it or— His fingers are already tapping out a reply ahead of his brain. 

 

_‘Haha, can’t blame you I guess. You wouldn’t believe how often I get carded.’_

 

_‘ooooh old enough to drink then?????’_ Peter laughs at the overuse of question marks.

 

‘ _I don't drink, but yeah. I’m 23 actually.’_ And there it is, out there for Wade to see. A simple number he couldn’t even share as Spider-Man, no matter how often it came up.While he waits for Wade to finish typing he pulls his duvet tighter around himself, trying to keep out the chill of the night air. 

 

_‘don’t drink!?’_ Is the first of the series of texts he gets back. 

_‘thats a relief really should have asked ur age before but’_

_‘ur aunt said you were in college so i figured u weren't jailbait’_

 

_‘Nope, I’m not. I’m in my last year of college actually.’_ His eyes are starting to droop a little, he really was tired from overworking himself the past few weeks. 

 

_‘good to know i havent become a pervy old man’_ Wade answers.

 

_‘I dont know about that. how old are you anyway?’_ Peter’s typing was getting worse, but he couldn't really be bothered to fix it at this point. 

 

_’34 and if all those underage girls can swoon over actors my age then i think im in the clear hitting on a 23 year old’_

 

And there was the reminder that they were definitely flirting. Peter still didn’t know how to feel about that when he was awake, his sleep addled brain faired even worse. 

 

_‘gross’_ Nice one Pete, his fingers flew haphazardly over the keys. 

_‘the underag e girls, not yuo, you’re perfect.’_ Nailed it. 

_‘LOL you tired pete?’_

 

_‘nooooo’_ Yes. He could barely keep his eyes open. 

 

_‘thats a yes. go to sleep nerd’_

 

_‘not a nerd’_ His brain was really focusing on the wrong thing, here. 

 

_‘sleeeeep’_ Was Wade’s only reply. 

 

_‘fiiiine goodnight wade.’_

 

‘ _good boy, nighty night pete!’_ Peter rolled over so he could grab the wire for his phone charger and clumsily plug his phone in for the night. After a few missed attempts he finally gets the thing charging and drops his phone onto the bedside table.

 

He let out a drawn out sigh and nestled deeper under the covers. As he dozed off he felt a content smile slip onto his face and realized that he finally felt warm. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the late update, I aim to get something out within 2 weeks of the last chapter being published and I missed my deadline by a few days. Depression has been kicking my ass, though, along with some personal things. I'm prioritizing my friends right now since a lot of hard stuff has hit everyone this past week. 
> 
> Thank you for being understanding and I hope the chapter is to your liking. I'm excited to bring Cheerleaderpool back soon, I've missed him dearly.


	6. What Is Happening?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title sums up how this is going to go down.

It’s the sunlight streaming in through the thin curtains of the bedroom window that cause Peter to actually stir in the morning. This was the first night in many that he hasn't had to exhaust himself by fighting criminals all night just to fall asleep. 

 

He stretches out, halfway between consciousness and sleep, waiting for his body to wake up on its own. Or that was the plan until his phone buzzed on the bedside table. Peter grumbled sleepily and rolled over, blindly grabbing for the device and unplugging it from the charger with a light yank of the cord. 

 

When he rolled back over he brought his phone in front of his face and immediately winced at the bright light coming from the screen. Through bleary eyes, he managed to turn down the brightness and actually saw he had a few text notifications from both Aunt May and Wade. Upon opening his phone he saw that it was already afternoon and sat up quickly. 

 

Aunt May’s texts were all reminders that he needed to go buy food and to call or text her back as soon as possible. He hated making her worry and shot her a quick text saying he would call her once he was more awake. Wade’s text was also a reminder to buy food.

 

_‘time to get up sleeping beauty its grocery time!’_

_‘may told me to remind u of that and to tell u 2 give her a call, so adorable’_

 

_‘Yeah, I’m on it. I actually slept in for once.’_ Peter replies quickly before getting out of bed and calling his aunt to reassure her that he was fine and he would be getting groceries as soon as he was dressed. 

 

After Aunt May let him go he threw his phone onto the bed so he could throw on some clothes and then shuffled into the bathroom wash his face and tame his messy bed-head. Eventually, he had to give up on his hair, it always ended up being messy no matter what he did, and brushed his teeth before heading back into his bedroom to grab his phone and wallet.

 

On his way out the door, he opened his unread messages from Wade. At first, it’s just comments about how he seemed really tired the night before so it wasn’t too surprising that he ended up sleeping in; this was followed by a brief conversation about Peter’s usual sleeping habits and the amount of work he had thrown himself into the past few weeks. 

 

_‘you really should take more time to relax’_

 

_‘The semester is ending soon anyway, I’ll have plenty of time to relax three weeks from now.’_

 

_‘i guessssssss’_ Peter laughs at the use of the emoji that seem to represent an exaggerated eye-roll. 

 

_‘If it makes you feel any better, I’m taking a break next week to have lunch with Aunt May.’_

 

_‘just lunch??’_

 

_‘Yep, but if you want we could use the excuse of me being over there to actually hang out?’_ Peter hopes it doesn’t sound as awkward to Wade as his brain makes it sound in his own head.

 

_‘omg yes!! you can totally come over after u visit sweet ol aunt may’  
‘we can watch something and ill even treat u to dinner if u want to stay that long?’_

 

Peter pauses as Wade trails off, almost as if he’s as unsure as Peter is. It’s hard to imagine Deadpool being too unsure to shamelessly flirt and beg for Peter’s time, but he’s learning that Wade and Deadpool are two sides of the same coin. And there was the fact, he reminded himself, that Wade had only acted so forward with Spider-Man. Maybe Peter was just a good enough replacement since Spider-Man had blown it all those weeks ago. 

 

Peter shook his head. No, Wade wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t just hang out with Peter as a replacement. Plus there was a difference between a good person making shitty choices and the actual bad guys. Wade knew Spider-Man was the former, his words from last night when they talked about Spidey looking out for the little guys made that apparent. 

 

Everything that had happened between Spider-Man and Deadpool was on Peter and he was still too much of a coward to make it right. Instead, he just kept hiding behind this new mask, which was really his actual face — which, ironically, was a big factor behind his and Wade’s fight in the first place. 

 

If anything, he really knew how to ruin his own life. 

 

_‘you don't have to — no pressure, petey!’_ Shit, he forgot to reply to Wade and he had almost walked right past the store while he was lost in thought.

 

_‘Sorry! Got distracted at the store. All of that sounds great and dinner is always a yes, you don't even have to ask.’_ He adds the smiling emoji with its tongue poking out at the end of his text.

 

_‘awww you used an emoji thats so cutE im going to die peter’_

 

_‘Drama queen.’_ He inserts the eye roll emoji that Wade had used from before and can’t stop the grin from spreading across his face at the reply he receives.

 

_‘AHHH I LOVE THAT LITTLE GUY UR KILLING MEEE’_ Followed by the emoji with x’s for eyes.

 

_‘Lol Sorry to cut this bonding experience short, but I’m actually at the store now so I’ll have to text you later.’_

 

_‘you use lol too? maybe you are hip with the kids :o’  
‘speak 2 u later pete!’_ Wade leaves a kissing emoji followed by a litany of little red hearts. 

 

_‘Never going to let me live that down are you? Later, Wade.’_ He leaves a single red heart of his own and sighs, even though he _knows_ there’s a smile stuck on his face, before pocketing his phone and heading inside. 

 

* * *

 

_“A masked criminal is currently causing a panic in Downtown Manhattan this evening. From the pictures sent in so far, many have speculated that this may be Deadpool — The masked mercenary who was last seen hanging out with Spider-Man just a couple months ago. Though the mask does seem quite similar it seems quite obvious to others that this is a female figure we are looking at and that the colours—.”_

 

Peter had been propped on the couch, laptop on his stomach as he lazily typed up another rough draft for his final paper. The television was on for background noise, but he quickly became distracted when the news channel stated there was a crisis in Manhattan. This would be enough on its own, but there was now the added factor that some people thought the cause of the panic was Deadpool. He pushed his laptop shut and sets it down on the table before rushing to get into his suit. 

 

In no time, he was dressed and making his way carefully out his apartment window before heading out to the streets, swinging over the city towards Lower Manhattan. 

 

__

 

Purple and gold spandex flooded his vision as he was once again tackled to the ground. His head was already throbbing from how many times he'd been knocked down. He really wished he had some backup right now. Maybe an Avenger or two? Deadpool would have to come defend his honor at some point, right? 

 

At least he was reassured that he was definitely not fighting Deadpool. It was dark out and he could definitely see how people had made the mistake, seeing as their masks were really similar in design. He wasn’t sure how people could miss the tits and curves, though — That was probably a dead giveaway that this wasn’t Wade. Suddenly, the weight on top of him was gone followed by a yell. 

 

“Up and at ‘em, Spidey!” Wade’s voice comes from above him followed by the sound of fighting a little further away. He pulled himself up, head still spinning from the previous blow he’d received. 

 

_Say his name three times and he’ll appear. Does it still count if I used two different names for the same person?_

 

“Did you really think I’d let you trash my brand new hero rep? How did anyone think you were me anyway? My suit is way cooler,” Deadpool stated, indignantly. “And I have smaller tits, hello?Are these people fucking blind?”

 

Deadpool is currently fighting off the villain, who Peter still could not get the name of. The loose fabric on the masked woman’s clothing was being used like whips, lashing out at Wade. The Merc was dodging her attacks, like they were nothing, and Peter decided to use her focus on Wade to come from behind and attack. He shot a web up to the nearby lamppost, thinking he would have a better advantage from above. He sprung into action, confident now that Deadpool was fighting alongside him. 

 

He may have miscalculated how good the woman's senses were and everything that followed was a blur. Gold fabric wrapped around his ankle and he gets pulled roughly down, mid-swing. He doesn’t have time to shoot another web out before he’s flung into the side of a building. His head cracks against the bricks, adding onto the pain that lingered from the hits he’d already taken. He may have heard Deadpool call out, but everything was quickly covered up by the sharp ringing in his head as he violently hits another building. He vaguely registers the fabric on his ankle loosening and then he hit’s the ground hard.

 

Everything goes black.

 

* * *

 

When Peter opens his eyes he notices immediately that he isn’t laying in the streets of Lower Manhattan anymore. Instead, he’s laying on an exam table; it’s the annoying kind with wax paper down the middle. The paper crinkled underneath him as he shifted slightly to get a better look around. There were more exam tables next to him, but no one occupied them. There was also a small bathroom in the back corner with the door standing open. 

 

Was he in a nurses office? It looked suspiciously like the one from his high school when he was younger; he would know, considering he spent quite a bit of time in the nurses office before getting his Spider-Man powers. 

 

Speaking of his Spider-Man powers, he felt incredibly weak at the moment. He couldn’t get hisSpider Senses to pick up on anything either, that is if his powers were even there. Peter bolted upright, the room swaying a bit as he did. He looked down at himself to see that he was a little slimmer than usual and he was in his old Midtown High sweater, which was hanging more loosely from his body than he remembered. 

 

“Oh good, you’re awake. You took a pretty hard hit to the head, kiddo.” His eyes snapped up to see where the voice had come from. The school nurse was walking around the corner, a bag of ice wrapped in a paper towel was in her hands. 

 

“Uh,” he began as she placed the ice against his head and moved one of his hands up to hold it in place for her. 

 

“Can you tell me your name and age?” She spoke softly and slowly, smiling patiently down at him. 

 

“Peter Benjamin Parker. I’m… Twenty-three?” he answered doubtfully. Something was off because this definitely didn’t feel like a twenty-three-year-old body, but for some reason, that was his automatic response. 

 

“Okay, Peter,” she started calmly though he could see the slight pull of her brows as her face scrunched a bit in worry. “Can you try your age one more time? Take your time.” 

 

He couldn’t understand why so much information was escaping him. He could barely remember what he’d just been thinking about a couple minutes ago — maybe he did get hit pretty hard in the head.

 

“Fifteen, right?” The nurse nodded and Peter sighed in relief. “Sorry about that. I’m fine, swear.” He smiled reassuringly at her. She continued to eye him skeptically but nodded. 

 

“I think you should lay down a few more minutes and get your bearings, but it doesn’t seem like you have a concussion. I’ll write you a pass back to class whenever you’re ready.” Classic school system. He did feel fine, though, better than he had just a few minutes ago. 

 

Peter thanked her and she walked back around the corner, probably to her desk. He sat there for a while, just staring blankly in front of him and trying to wrap his head around the situation. He could hardly remember anything from a couple of minutes ago, let alone the entire rest of the day. Only flashes of memory kept coming back. Speaking of flashes— He vaguely remembered attempting to stand up to Flash Thompson and getting destroyed for it. 

 

Shit, it was all coming back to him now. He was beaten up by Flash again; in front of the person he was trying to impress too! The revelation has him on his feet, cursing his Parker luck as usual. 

 

“I can’t believe I let him bait me into that,” He whispered harshly to himself. “He wanted me to make a fool of myself in front of Wade!”

 

Wade Wilson was one of the most popular people in school, he was head of the cheer squad, gorgeous, and (unfortunately) Flash’s boyfriend. Flash was the quarterback for the football team and also one of the popular kids, obviously. Peter would do anything to get Wade to notice him, but that would probably never happen. Peter was the textbook definition of a nerd — The exact type of guy Wade would never go for. 

 

He swayed a little on his feet for a moment as he headed around the corner to the front half of the clinic. He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time and immediately realized he was missing Biology; it may be his best subject but that didn't mean he could afford to miss a lesson. Especially with all the work that gets assigned. Not to mention Wade had that class and that means he could try to apologize for picking a fight with the guys boyfriend and make sure they’re not on bad terms. That was the last thing he needed. 

 

“That was fast. Sure you’re ready to head back to class already?” Peter looks up at the nurse who is seated at her desk and looking at him skeptically. 

 

“Uh— Yes. I think I’ll be fine the last two periods of the day.” He smiles to reassure and she nods, writing out a quick pass and handing it to him. 

 

“Make sure to grab your backpack over there,” she points to his bag on one of the chairs. “And come back if you feel dizzy again.” He takes the pass and walks over to pick up his bag and sling it on over one shoulder.

 

“Thanks, I will!.” He says on his way out the door. 

 

There’s not much time left for this period so he walks as quickly as possible through the halls. When he opens the door everyone stares as he walks in, it’s the absolute worst part of being late. No contest. He hands his pass to Mr. Richards and the man nods at him, cueing him to go ahead and take his seat. His seat happens to be at the front of the class, the lab bench closest to the teachers desk. He expects to see his usual lab partner but instead is met with the gorgeous sight of Wade Wilson. 

 

_Holy shit, okay— Do not panic, Peter. Do not think too hard about the fact that Wade fucking Wilson is sitting at your lab bench._

 

He sits down and Wade glances over at him, he doesn't know what to do. His body just kind of freezes up and he ends up giving the boy an awards grin. Wade raises a barely-there-eyebrow and smiles a little like he's amused. The boy raises his hand slightly off the table in front of him in a half wave and then looks forward again. 

 

Wade Wilson just waved at him _and_ smiled at him, he could die happy right now. That must mean Wade isn’t mad at him about earlier? 

 

He tried really hard from them on to pay attention to Mr. Richards, but he was so hyper-aware of the presence next to him that it was impossible and before he knew it the bell was ringing. 

 

“Peter, can I see you up here for a minute? You hang back too, Mr. Wilson.” Peter looked up wide-eyed and nodded. He quickly shoved everything into his bag and pulled it on before walking up the teachers desk. Wade simply walked around to hop up and take a seat on top of the lab table. Mr. Richards just shook his head and then looked to address Peter. 

 

“Peter, you’ve got a great grade in this class and are undoubtedly one of the brightest science students at this school,” he says with a smile.

 

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Richards. If this is about me being a little out of it today I’m really sorry—“ he started, but Mr. Richards cuts him off with a shake of his head. 

 

“No, no. I’m sure you could make up the work you missed today in your sleep. What I was going to ask is if you would be willing to tutor Mr. Wilson, here.” He nods in Wade’s direction and Peter practically feels his soul leave his body. 

 

_I’m ascending. This is heaven._

 

“Oh, of course!” He tries not to sound too excited. “Um, if it’s fine with Wade, of course.”

 

“I’ve already talked to Mr. Wilson, it’s why he’ll be sitting at the front of the class with you from now on. He’s been falling behind in my class for too long for it to just be a problem with one unit.” Mr. Richards looks at Wade as he says all this and Peter turns to see the frown on the other boys face. 

 

“Wow, thanks for selling me out. The last thing I need is for Parker to think I’m a total idiot-“

 

Peter chimes in with “I don’t.” at the same time Mr. Richards says “He doesn’t.” — Good, they’re on the same page. Wade rolls his eyes. 

 

“Still.” Wade hops off the lab bench and walks up to Peter to hold out a piece of paper. “My number.” He says simply. 

 

Peter stares dumbly for a minute — there goes that eyebrow again. He takes the piece of paper and nods, he’s not sure why Wade is worried what he thinks when he’s the one making a fool of himself all the time. 

“Text me later and we’ll set something up, yeah?” Wade looks over to Mr. Richards then. “Can I go now, if I’m late for 7th again I think I’ll definitely get a detention.” Richards shakes his head and waves him off. Wade then turns around to bend over and grab his bag off the ground, causing the black skirt he was wearing to ride up. Peter had to try very hard to not be _that guy_ and stare at the newly exposed skin of the other boys thighs. When Wade is standing upright again Peter lets himself look over and Wade tosses his hand up in a short goodbye and walks out the door. 

 

“You’re sure you’re okay with this, Peter? I know Mr. Wilson can be intimidating.” Mr. Richards looked at him expectantly, but Peter just shook his head. 

 

“I’m sure I can handle it. I have to deal with Flash talking down to me on a daily basis already.” He chuckled and the man smiled sadly. None of the teachers actually thought Flash was violent, some even thought that he was just teasing other students. Mr. Richards seemed to know the truth, but there wasn’t much you could do when the bully was the quarterback of the football team. Also known as the schools pride and joy. 

 

“Alright. Well, don’t let me keep you from your next class.” Peter nodded and turned quickly to walk out the door. Once he was outside he let out a huge sigh. 

 

He was going to be tutoring Wade Wilson, head cheerleader, the boyfriend of the guy he hates, and his long-time crush. Maybe his luck wasn't all bad. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so late and it's not even long to make up for it, I'm sorry. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter for some reason.  
> I have the rest of the story planned out so, in theory, it shouldn't take as long but we'll see. Thank you again for your patience, everyone! Points to you if you can guess who that villain was, by the way. It's a little vague. 
> 
> This story has an official playlist now! [You can listen to it here.](http://8tracks.com/walesaph/shot-through-the-heart)  
> 


	7. Start A Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams are weird.  
> Alternatively: Why did I use, like, 20 line breaks?

When Peter finally collapses onto his bed that night he takes a moment to reflect on the events of the day. He is going to be tutoring Wade Wilson one-on-one. He’s repeated it to himself a thousand times already, but he still can hardly believe it. 

 

_Holy shit! I’m going to get to be alone with Wade Wilson, the most beautiful and talented person in the entire school? I mean, he’s the head cheerleader and dating the quarterback! That’s, like, every high school cliche ever. Face it, Pete. You just hit the jackpot._

 

Technically speaking, Peter doesn’t have a chance with Wade. He definitely doesn't want to be that guy who comes on to someone who’s already in a relationship. This is strictly business,he’s going to take this seriously and actually help Wade with his classes and maybe he’ll get lucky along the way. Not likely, but a guy can dream. 

 

He fishes Wade’s number out from where it was tucked, now crumpled, in his backpack. Nervously, he taps out the number and sends a simple text. 

 

_‘Hey, this is Peter! Just wanted to set up times for the tutoring thing.’_

 

He gets a response pretty quickly, he’s not surprised that Wade probably lives on his cell phone being as popular as he is. Wade’s text speech is pretty atrocious, but it’s endearing in a weird way. It gives Wade’s texts more personality and Peter cringes at his own properly typed out sentences but figures it’s too late to change now. Wade even makes fun of his good grammar, but Peter just shoots back that this is supposed to be professional. This get’s and ‘LOL’ out of Wade and Peter’s entire chest warms at the thought of making the other boy laugh. 

 

They end up settling on Monday and Wednesdays after school in the library for now and they’ll adjust the schedule as needed, whether that be reducing the time needed or increasing it. Wade has cheer practices on Tuesday and Thursday — Peter already knows that, but he didn’t want to sound like a complete stalker by admitting it. Friday’s are obviously football games so there would be no time then either. Peter does apologize for filling up Wade’s schedule and offers to help him with any other homework he has so that when he goes home he can actually relax. Wade makes sure to tell him how sweet that is and Peter’s heart flutters in his chest. 

 

_‘Yeah, I’m just a nerd and don't do much of anything outside school so my schedule is pretty flexible. Just tell me if you want to switch stuff around or can’t make it.’_

 

_‘awwww thanks petey! thats so sweet, my little nerd <3 <3 <3 you know i'm pretty flexible too ;)’_

 

God, he is so tightly wrapped around this boys finger it’s embarrassing. What’s even more embarrassing is how obviously he’s being led on, but he just can’t push himself to care as long as it means more attention from Wade. Wow, it was suddenly really hot in his room after that last comment. Of course, Peter knows better than to dwell on the casual flirting. It’s all a joke to Wade and isn’t anything to take to heart. 

 

_Come on, Wade Wilson flirting with you? In your dreams, Peter._

 

* * *

Wednesday rolls around and the day goes by agonizingly slow. Wade actually speaks to him in bio, it’s just an acknowledgement that he’ll be at the library after seventh period but it still counts. His heart does that little fluttering thing in his chest again and it’s pretty embarrassing how easy it is for Wade to get under his skin.

 

When the bell finally rings, signaling the end of the day, he jumps up a little too enthusiastically. Gathering up all his books he dumps them into his backpack before zipping it up and slinging it onto his shoulder then heading out of the classroom and towards the library. 

 

He sits down at one of the libraries many tables and gets out his biology book along with some paper and a pencil. Wade shows up almost ten minutes after the final bell with a grin on his face and Peter nervously returns the smile. 

 

It’s easier to stop being so nervous once they start talking about biology. Science is one thing Peter has never gotten tongue-tied over — he could only hope that what he was saying was simple enough for Wade to understand. 

 

“You know I’m not, like, stupid or anything, right?” Wade says. 

 

“Huh?” He had cut Peter off in the middle of explaining the current chapter they were on.

 

“As long as you don’t start using like big science words, I can probably understand what’s in the book without you dumbing it way down for me. I mean, my grades are what they are ‘cause I don't show up to class not ‘cause I’m brain-dead or whatever.” 

 

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t want to accidentally go on some nerd rant so I was trying to keep it simple. I don’t think you’re dumb, you’re amazing.” _Oh my God._ Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut? 

 

Wade laughs, “I know, right? All these compliments are going to make me blush, Petey-Pie.”

 

The flirting! He couldn’t do this, he swore he was going to just stick to the tutoring and let this happen naturally. He couldn’t go sticking his foot in his mouth and saying stupid shit like ‘ _you’re amazing’_ out loud! 

 

“Haha, like you don't get complimented like that all the time.” Peter shoots back and then starts writing some notes down for Wade, hoping the conversation can drift back to biology now. 

 

He sees Wade shrug out of the corner of his eye, “Still nice to hear it from _certain people_.” Peter tries not to blush at the look Wade gives him when he says ‘certain people’. It’s almost predatory and he really has to be imagining all this because there’s no way Wade would ever come on to _him._

 

Thankfully, they do go back to studying at this point. Wade was right, he’s grasping stuff a lot better now that Peter has gone over some of it with him. They’re wrapping up and starting to pack stuff away when Wade speaks up again.

 

“Thanks again for doing this, Pete. I know you’re not getting paid, like, you’re just being a good kid and that’s really cool of you. I mean, here I am close to an FA and you probably have never had a detention in your life.” 

“No, I haven’t. I assumed you couldn’t get into too much trouble, being on the cheer squad and all.” Peter answered while putting books and papers back inside his backpack. 

 

“Unsurprisingly, you can get away with a lot when you’re the best one on the team. Don’t tell anyone I said that.” 

 

Peter laughs at that, there are definitely unfair perks to being an athlete in high school. Wade pauses before turning back to Peter with a sheepish smile. 

 

“Hey, remember when you said you would help me out with homework? Is that still on the table?” Wade gave Peter his best puppy eyes, to which he could obviously never say no to. 

 

“I did promise I would.” The grin Peter gets is worth the extra hour spent in the school library.

 

_Who are you trying to kid, Peter? You’d give just about anything for an extra hour with Wade Wilson._

 

* * *

 

The next few days pass by in a blur, almost like they’re happening in fast-forward. Mr. Richards is impressed with the improvement in Wade’s work and requests their tutoring continues. Peter agrees. 

 

They’re two weeks into their tutoring sessions when Wade asks him why he never goes to any of the football games.

 

“I thought you were one of my biggest fans, Petey. Why don’t I ever see you at the games?” Peter couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse at the time without making it obvious that he was lying. He told Wade that the kind of people who went to the football games were usually the kind of people that would want to beat him up behind the bleachers. 

 

As if it wasn’t bad enough to admit it aloud, Wade had laughed and told Peter that he should bulk up so he can actually come support him at the games. 

 

“Seriously, Jessica almost has as many fanboys as I do and that’s not okay.” Wade had said before starting to pack up, telling Peter that he needed to get going a little earlier that day because Flash was complaining about not spending any time together. 

 

“He’s the worst. It’s not like he actually wants to spend time with me, you know? He just likes having me on his arm all the time to make other people jealous. Not that I can blame him,” He winks at Peter, who is left speechless, before getting up and heading to the library doors. “See you in class tomorrow!” He leaves without a response from Peter, just a half-hearted wave. 

 

* * *

 

Peter doesn’t know why he thinks it’s a good idea to go to watch the cheerleading practice on Thursday. Especially because it’s taking place out on the field where the football team is practicing as well. Peter just makes his way up into the bleachers and huddles down between the seats hoping no one will take notice of him.  


He instantly catches sight of Wade and how great he looks. He always feels guilty thinking about Wade’s looks, like his personality doesn't matter. In fact, Wade’s personality is originally what caught his attention — he was always carefree and cracking jokes that Peter felt matched his own sense of humor. He couldn’t say that looks didn’t matter to him because Peter was definitely physically drawn to certain people, but personality was a big factor when it came to his crushes. 

 

The big problem with Peter’s crush was that it was out in the open after Flash had beaten it out of him one day. A lot of people had crushes on Wade, but Peter was already targeted by Flash and his friends and his crush, in particular, made him even easier to pick on. If his crush wasn’t already apparent to Wade, he definitely knew after Flash had found out. They probably laughed about it together — a fact that made Peter’s stomach twist. 

 

He looked back up towards the cheerleaders to see them all parting to take a water break. Flash walks over to wrap an arm around Wade’s waist, giving him a kiss on the cheek. There’s a smug grin on his face at the satisfaction of knowing everyone is watching them. He says something that Peter has no way of catching from his spot in the bleachers, but everyone around laughs. Wade laughs too, but there’s something there that Peter wouldn’t have noticed before hanging out the past couple weeks. It’s like a tinge of annoyance lingers under the grin — it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. It’s weird to see Wade hide his emotions at all, but Peter knows he shouldn’t bring it up when they meet tomorrow. 

 

Flash gets called back over by the coach and everyone laughs again. Practice continues and Peter ends up pulling out some of his homework while he watches. He’s concentrated on a particularly difficult math problem when a shadow is suddenly was over him. He tenses up, expecting to see Flash or one of his goons above him, but when he looks up he’s met with the grinning face of Wade Wilson. 

 

“Get a load of you! Being a little creep and watching all the cute cheerleaders practice, huh?” He thinks Wade is joking. Hopes he’s joking, at least. 

 

“Haha, couldn’t convince you I’m a big football fan, could I?” He jokes back. 

 

“Pfft, no. That would be like me trying to convince you I’m a virgin or something.” Peter blushes and Wade just grins wider. Despite his grin seeming normal his stance is much more defensive than usual, arms crossed and body poised in a way that suggests confrontation. It’s then that Peter glances behind Wade and notices the rest of the cheer squad watching them along with a few of the football players — including Flash, shit. 

 

“I, uh, think I should get going, though.” He closes his math book with the papers inside and stuffs it into his backpack. Wade starts to say something, but Peter is burning with embarrassment. He’d been stupid enough to think that Wade liked him even a little bit, but he was wrong. Wade was probably just playing him this whole time. 

 

“Wait,” Wade’s hand on his shoulder stopped him short of walking down the steps and far away from the football field and all the eyes watching him. “You’re not gonna stay to see my routine, Pete? That’s pretty rude.” Wade tries to joke, but his grin is no longer reaching his eyes. 

All of a sudden there was an arm around Wade’s shoulders and Flash Thompson was sneering down at Peter, who really just wanted to get home. It was a mistake to come out here in the first place. 

 

“There a problem here, babe?” He addressed Wade, who had momentarily tensed up when Flash had invaded his space. 

 

“Peter doesn’t want to stay and see the routine I made, ’s all. He says he’s got homework or something.” Wade waves his hand in dismissal. Peter really did appreciate Wade’s attempt to brush the whole thing off so they could go their separate ways, but Peter also knew that Flash wouldn’t stop here. 

 

“Oh? So you’re too good for my girl now, Parker?” He saw Wade roll his eyes at “my girl” and it almost made him laugh, which really would have been the nail in the coffin for him. 

 

“You know, you’re getting real cocky lately, Parker. You think you can just text Wade whenever you want because of your little tutoring sessions? We don’t have time to hang around with losers like you. Know what? Wade was gonna let you down easy, but you don’t deserve that. Your little tutoring thing tomorrow is canceled. Wade and I are going to a pre-game party instead. He was gonna’ say some bullshit like ‘Oh sorry, Peter. I’m not feeling well and need to rest up for the game tomorrow’.” He punctuates the words with a pathetic fake cough.

 

They hear a shout from across the field from the football coach telling Flash to stop screwing around and get back to practice. Peter hardly registers Flash’s response before he walks off, he’s just left staring at his feet unable to move. He knows that Wade is still in front of him and saying his name, but the last thing he wants to do is discuss any of this. He finally takes in a shaky breath and manages to turn around and walk away, mumbling a short apology to Wade about not being able to stay and see his routine. 

 

It’s his own fault for getting his hopes up and if he cries at all when he gets home, no one needs to know anything about it.

 

* * *

 

Peter doesn’t go to school the next day, too afraid of running into anyone who happened to witness what happened the day before. It was probably even worse that he didn’t show up at all, but he couldn’t be bothered to care what people said as long as he wasn’t there to be ridiculed in person. 

 

Wade had texted him a handful of times and under any other circumstance, Peter would be ecstatic. He lets himself lay in bed for almost the whole day on his phone, even that gets boring eventually and he ends up staring blankly at the ceiling until his vision goes fuzzy. Eventually, a sharp pinch of pain on his hand breaks him out of his trance. 

 

Okay, okay — _Ouch!_ That’s more like searing pain than a sting now. He looks over at his palm to see a large, red welt on the middle of his palm and something big and black skittering off the side of the bed. He jolts into a sitting position to look over the side of the bed only to see the floor is covered in spiders. Literally, hundreds of spiders all over his bedroom floor. 

 

For some reason his first instinct is to jump out of the bed, he tries to avoid the spiders but they are everywhere. He finally gives up and just runs as fast as he can, yanking open his bedroom door and running out into the hallway. He keeps running farther from his room that the spiders are now pouring out of. The hallway seems to stretch on and on forever and suddenly everything is swaying. 

 

He feels sick. Like he had just stepped onto an extremely rocky boat and his equilibrium can’t catch a break— Wait, is his hand supposed to feel like it’s _throbbing?_

 

The next thing he knows, he’s on the floor and breaking into a cold sweat that leaves him shaking. The last thing he thinks before he blacks out is that he hopes he doesn’t wake up covered in spiders. 

 

* * *

Waking up should be a slow process, but once Peter opens his eyes he’s fully awake. His hand still feels a little hot, but it’s not swollen like he thought it would be. There’s also some strange feeling growing inside him like he had enough energy that he could do anything. 

 

Apparently, “anything” includes finding out he can stick to walls and climb onto the ceiling.

 

“Holy shit, I’m Spider-Man.” He manages to detach himself from the ceiling and very carefully opens his bathroom door, trying not to get stuck to anything else. When he looks in the mirror he is shocked firstly by the fact that he’s not wearing glasses and yet he can see incredibly well. The second thing that shocks him is that he has muscles. He tosses off his shirt to get a better look and, yep, that’s a full six-pack he’s sporting. 

 

He hears his phone chime from his room and quickly makes his way there, breathing a sigh of relief when he opens his bedroom door to zero spiders. It was like he had some bizarre nightmare, but he at least hoped that this part was real. 

 

He had more texts from Wade and Peter grimaced, remembering the events of the day before. Then it hit him, he was buff now! He could totally take on Flash if he wanted to. And boy, did he want to. He picked up his phone, trying to control his now overly sticky fingers as he typed out a reply to Wade.

 

_‘Sorry I haven't been replying I was pretty sick, but all better now! Hey, the game tomorrow is a home game right?’_

 

Wade’s answer is almost immediate. _‘petey thank god!! totally thought you might have been dead and i would have felt rly bad :( ‘_ Peter rolled his eyes. Another ping went off as more texts rolled in.

 

_‘yep tomorrow is a home game- wait!!! does this mean ur going??’_

 

_‘Yeah, I’ll be there. And Wade? Tell Flash to meet me behind the bleachers after the game.’_ Peter typed out confidently. Wade’s urgent reply almost makes him laugh. 

 

_‘uhhh what!?!?’_

_‘okay um pete ur like an infant compared to flash’_

_‘seriously u dont have to like fight for me or anything ok? really u dont have a chance with me im like sooooo out of ur league’_

_‘pls dont fight him i think u will actually die and i kinda like u :(‘_

 

Okay, the “out of your league” thing does actually hurt a little but he’s a different person now! A person with cool spider powers who is totally in Wade Wilson’s league. 

 

‘J _ust make sure you tell him? I can take care of myself, but you have to come cheer me on ;) Where would I be without the best cheerleader in the school?’_ Wow, he hoped Wade didn’t think that was lame. 

 

_‘awww an emoticon just for me?? okay, you win’  
‘also its “best cheerleader in the world” to you mr. parker :p’_

 

Peter can help but pump his fist in the air at the returned flirt from Wade. He texts back _‘Thank you, Best Cheerleader in the World.’_ and Wade texts back a bunch of heart emojis and that he will see him in class tomorrow. Peter spends half of the night awake with butterflies in his stomach and the other half in a dreamless sleep. 

 

* * *

 

He wears baggy clothes to school the next day, as usual. No matter how badly he wants to wear clothes that will show off just how buff he’d gotten overnight he can’t risk Flash finding out just yet. He even wore his classes to ensure he didn’t draw any attention to himself. It seemed like the day was dragging on forever but eventually it was time for Biology and when he walked in he felt Wade’s eyes on him immediately. 

 

“Take a seat, Pete.” Wade winks at him as he walks up to their shared desk. “So, uhh— for what it’s worth, I’m really fucking sorry for that shit Flash said to you. He’s being more of an asshole than usual for some reason. Anyway, we should totally do a short tutoring session after school if you can? I have a couple hours to eat and do whatever else before I have to get changed and meet up with the squad.” 

 

Peter is surprised that Wade would cut into the short time he has before the game tonight to study with him, but nods his head nonetheless - not trusting his voice to come out as smooth as he wants it to right now. Wade smiles again and then turns away when Mr. Richards walks into the room. 

 

* * *

Peter waits in the library after school after receiving a text from Wade in his last period. Wade said he was going to drive home to change into his other uniform, that way he can save time and just pick up food for them on the way back. Peter tells him he doesn’t have to get him anything, but Wade insists that it’s not a big deal.

 

Wade comes back about half an hour later with tacos and wearing a new black and red cheer uniform. They have to eat out in the hallway since there’s no food allowed in the library and Peter tries very hard not to stare when they sit down and Wade’s skirt rides up a little. 

 

He keeps catching Wade looking at him, but he can’t quite figure out what he’s seeing there. He doesn’t have to wonder long — they finish eating and head back into the library and get to work on homework, Peter helping Wade whenever he needs the help. Wade’s still distracted though and he has to wonder if there’s something on his face and Wade is too polite to tell him? That doesn’t make sense, considering Wade never cares much about being blunt about things. He decides to let it slide and just continues to work on his homework. 

 

A heavy sigh from the boy across from him breaks him out of his thoughts and then he almost falls backward out of his chair with a yelp when he looks up to see Wade Wilson crawling over the top of the table to peer down at him with a borderline predatory gaze. By some miracle, he manages to right himself, but this also brings him closer to Wade, who is now fully on top of the table in front of Peter. 

   
  


“Listen, Peter. You’re trying to hide it with those baggy clothes, but I can see exactly what’s going on here.” Wade tugs on Peter’s loose sweater with a smirk on his lips. 

 

“W-what do you mean?” He tries to play dumb, but really if Wade knows it can’t hurt too much. Hell, he was the one Peter was trying to impress in the first place. 

 

“All those muscles you’re hiding under there, Sweetums. You really didn’t think I would notice? Come _oooon_ , Pete! Show me what you’ve got?” He tugged again at Peter’s sweater and Peter blushed. 

 

“What? No! I’m not just going to take my sweater off in the middle of the library.” He dropped his voice down to a whisper, eyes darting around even though he knew no one would be in the library this late after school.

 

“I only have like an hour left before I have to head out of here and I want details, Peter Parker. Those details include me getting to look at your cute bod for, like, at least half of that hour.” Wade shifted so that he could sit in front of Peter with his legs hanging off the side of the table. This gave Peter an easy view of the tiny shorts underneath Wade’s skirt and he quickly whipped his head to the side to keep himself from looking. And from the look on Wade’s face, he knew _exactly_ what he was doing. 

 

“I-I dont—“

 

“Please, Petey?” Wade ducked his head and peered at Peter through blonde eyelashes. Peter only had to glance at Wade before he was turning back away with a groan. 

 

“Can we do this… I don’t know, not in the library?” Wade nods enthusiastically and hops off the table with a whoop of excitement, earning them a dirty look from the librarian at the counter. They pack up all their stuff quickly and head back out into the halls and towards the bathroom. Once inside, Peter turns to see Wade practically bouncing in excitement. 

 

“Alright, show me those gorgeous muscles!” Wade is back on him, pulling at the hem of his sweater.

 

“Okay, okay. Jeez—“ He pushes Wade’s hands away and replaces them with his own to tug off the oversized sweater, revealing his newly muscled chest and arms.

 

“You’ve gotta’ be kidding me,” Peter watches Wade’s expression turn to one of shock. “You’ve been hiding this from me!?” The other boy immediately moves forwards to touch his chest, but Peter steps back. 

 

“What are you doing?“

 

“Aw, come _onnnn_. You can’t show me that and not expect me to—“ Wade cuts himself off with a frustrated noise and shakes his head. “Seriously, Pete. What the hell?” 

 

“Do you see why I want to finish this whole thing with Flash now?” Peter says as he goes to pull his sweater back on.

 

“ _Nooo_ , don’t put it back on.” He could swear Wade just whimpered a little. He pulls the sweater back on regardless and Wade actually pouts. Peter just shrugs and picks his backpack up off the floor, waiting for an actual response. 

 

“Okay, I realize why you want to fight Flash and win the guy, that’s me bee-tee-dubs, but is some muscle really enough to beat him? I mean, he has muscles too and he’s got that big jock thing going on, you’re more cute gymnast than jock. Point is, do you have the moves to go with that six pack?” 

 

“Guess you’ll find out tonight.” Peter shrugs and starts heading out of the bathroom. “Don’t you have to get going, _bee-tee-dubs_.” 

 

Wade sticks his tongue out at Peter before glancing at his phone and letting out a squeak of surprise when he sees the time. He ends up pushing past Peter to run down the hall ahead of him. 

 

“Hey! If you win tonight, you’re totally getting a kiss from me!” Wade calls back over his shoulder.

 

Peter is really glad Wade is so late because it means he can’t see the embarrassing blush that rises to his cheeks or the even more embarrassing, lovesick smile.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, the chapter artwork was a group effort this time. Our good buddy Sai was very kind and drew one of my sketches and Zin colored. [You can find more of Sai's stuff here!](http://saisart.tumblr.com/)
> 
> This chapter was really late, but I was really busy last weekend and the week leading up to it because of Metrocon so I lost a lot of time. Classes start back up in about a week and a half for me - I only need two classes to finish my degree so compared to the 5 classes I would usually take this is a blessing. One of those classes is a writing class so I'm just hoping that doesn't discourage me too much from working on this fic.  
> Also, this fic is actually getting close to some sort of ending so that's pretty exciting.  
> Thank you, for all your patience and kind comments.


	8. Don't Wake Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dream sequence comes to a close and Peter has to deal with reality again.

 

Peter really hates football. 

 

The fact that he hates Flash Thompson even more is the only thing keeping him from just going home. And he does get to watch Wade cheer all night, so that’s a plus . Wade keeps turning around after every cheer and winked up at him from his spot on the track, pompoms waving in greeting. The wink seems to be one part flirtatious and one part all-knowing, Wade knows that Peter can’t keep his eyes from drifting over every time they start up one of their routines. 

 

Wade was glistening, glowing, and gifted — when under the lights and surrounded by the cheers of enthusiastic football fans he shined brightest. Underneath, Peter knows that Wade is guarded in so many ways. People thing that he’s so easy, you’d have to be to put up with a boyfriend like Flash Thompson. Peter knows the truth, Wade is truly a good person under all the walls he put up, a perfect imitation — a counterfeit prep. He’s built up the persona so perfectly that not even his closest friends suspect that Wade could act differently when thrown into a new crowd. 

 

Watching Wade out there gave Peter all the bravery in the world, that and the fact that he had these crazy new powers that came from a spider bite of all things. After tonight he wouldn’t have to worry about Flash walking all over him like he’s nothing. He was stronger now and he was going to make Flash pay for all the people he’d hurt, especially Wade. 

 

_‘Okay, Peter. Clear your head, we’re about to go to half-time and then there are only two quarters left. You can’t get too distracted by Wade when there’s so much riding on your shoulders.’_ He let out a shuddering breath and slumped forward to rest against the fence that separated the bleachers from the football field. The cold metal bit into his skin, but it was a welcoming contrast to the heat that had gathered in his cheeks after watching Wade’s last cheer. 

 

It was weird to think this would all be over soon. His entire life is going to turn around in a matter of minutes! He would beat Flash, his long-time rival, and bully. Then he would win the affections of his long-time crush, Wade Wilson. Peter was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the final buzzer for the second quarter. He only realized it was half-time when Wade appeared on the other side of the fence, a flirtatious quip already falling from his lips. 

 

“Aw, Babe — You look flushed, you’re not sick, are you? Is it the cold or are you just really enjoying watching me cheer?” Wade poked at Peter’s reddened cheek teasingly through one of the gaps in the chain-link fence. 

 

Peter rolled his eyes and took a step back to avoid any more teasing pokes. “Haha. It’s probably just the cold,” he lied. “Not that I don’t enjoy watching you, but I’m not exactly that easy.”

 

“You sure?” Wade leaned against his side of the fence with a grin. 

 

“Shush,” Peter couldn’t help the quirk of his own lips. “Do you get a break for half-time?” 

 

“Yep, I can’t exactly leave the field but I can talk to you here if that’s okay. We only have about fifteen minutes anyway. Oh, are you excited to take a swing at Flash later?” 

 

“God, yeah. It feels like my whole life has lead up to this moment. That’s kind of sad, huh?” He sighed and leaned against the fence again, Wade still leaning against the other side. Being this close to Wade was much less overwhelming than it had been just a couple weeks ago and it filled him with even more hope for the future. 

 

“Naaaah, it’s real sweet that you want to fight for my honor or whatever. I mean, I know it’s not all for me, but I’m gonna’ pretend a little to buff my ego if that’s okay with you.” Wade was smiling at the ground and it shocked Peter for a minute, it was probably the rawest emotion Peter had seen Wade express since they’d started spending time together. When Wade looked back up at him through his eyelashes he could feel his breath catch in his throat for a second. 

 

“Like your ego needs any more buffing.” Peter countered, trying to regain his cool. Or he would have been if he had any, to begin with. 

 

“This is why we make such great friends, Pete,” Wade said after huffing out one of the most genuine laughs he’d ever heard from the other boy. It made his heart swell and a blush rise to his cheeks again. 

 

“Yeah… Hey, you should probably go grab something to eat while you have some time left on break. We have all night to talk after I bring Flash down from his winner’s high.” Peter pressed his cheek back against the metal of the fence, trying to calm the color in his cheeks. 

 

“Ahh, you’re right,” Wade says, looking back over at his fellow cheerleaders who all quickly turned away from them and resumed taking bites of their pizza. “What makes you so sure we’re gonna’ win though?” 

 

“Well, we’re already up by, like, two touchdowns? Plus, it would be so much sweeter to see Flash loose to ‘Puny Peter Parker’ after a win, right?” 

 

“Ohhh yeah, that would be pretty sweet.” Wade snickers and then leans in to press his lips to Peter’s cheek through the hole in the fence. “I can’t wait to see it go down,” He calls as he skips away from Peter to rejoin his squad and grab some food. “Enjoy the rest of the game, Baby Boy!” Wade winked to him before turning around and meeting the shocked expressions of his teammates with ease. 

 

Peter is reeling after that combo Wade just hit him with. _Seriously, a kiss and that nickname?_ Thankfully, he had enough sense to bring his hand up in a half wave before Wade turned away. 

 

—

 

The cheers of the crowd as they exited the stadium are a constant roar in his ears. He could still hear the band playing their school song just outside the stadium by the locker rooms where the football team was proudly whooping and hollering after their big win. The celebration would go on for a while, but after that calms down, Peter knew that it would be no time at all before most of the team was heading back to the stadium to watch “Puny Parker” vs. Flash Thompson, Quarterback of the football team and the MVP of tonight’s game. 

 

They probably think it’s going to be hilarious to watch some nerdy kid get the shit kicked out of them. Another one bites the dust under the frigid metal bleachers and the buzzing fluorescent lights of the football stadium. Everyone besides himself and Wade probably thought Peter had a death wish. 

 

Of course, this wasn't the case. This time, he was going to beat Flash and Wade was going to rub salt into the wound by dumping him in front of everyone. At least, this was the ideal scenario. If he could win tonight, everything he’d ever wanted would be within grasp for the first time in his life. 

 

Peter made his way out of the stadium like everyone else, they had to wait until all the administration in charge of making sure everyone left the stadium were gone and then they’d be free to go back in without anyone knowing. The entrance to the place never closed so the normal fight spot under the bleachers was always open to whatever unlucky chump the football team had chosen that week. This week, Peter had chosen them. 

 

It took nearly twenty minutes for everyone to abandon the stadium and make their way out to the parking lot across the practice field and the nearby retention pond. Peter took this as his cue to go back inside and make his way into a dark area under the bleachers where any clean-up crew wouldn’t notice him. Another five minutes and some members of the football team started to trickle into the stadium along with a few of the cheerleaders. A couple more minutes pass and everyone had gathered on the sidewalk under the bleachers where most of the light were burned out. Last to arrive was, of course, Flash Thompson with Wade pressed against his side like an accessory. Wade’s face shifted from bored to playful as soon as he spotted Peter. 

 

“Ready to get your ass kicked, Parker?” Flash’s mouth twisted into a vicious grin and Peter tried to remain cool as laughs rang out around him. 

 

“Hey, you know the rules. Pat downs first, no one better be planning to pull any knives-“ 

 

“Please, Parker doesn’t have the guts to kill anyone and we all know I could put this kid in the hospital with my fists alone.” Some of Flash’s closer friends chuckled while everyone else around cringed. 

 

“We’re doing it anyway,” one of the cheerleaders called and nodded to Wade, who moved from Flash’s side to give Peter a brief pat down. He saw Wade roll his eyes, with a little shake of his head before heading back to Flash and doing a slightly more thorough search. It made Peter smile knowing Wade trusted him more than he trusted the guy he’d been dating for almost a solid year now. 

 

“They’re both clean from what I can tell. Flash, if you put my tutor in the fucking hospital I’ll punch you myself, got it? I really need to pass bio.” He winked at Peter over his shoulder before stepping into the crowd that had formed around him and Flash. As expected, everyone in the crowd laughed at Wade’s comment while Flash looked somewhat unamused. 

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll try not to kill him for ya’.” Flash then stepped up into Peter’s space. “Ready, Parker?” Peter nodded and then Flash’s fist was flying towards his face. 

 

Peter caught Flash’s fist easily with his newly honed reflexes. A clear gasp came from the group of people around them. Peter watched on with a smile as Flash’s shock turned to rage. 

 

The quarterback pulled his fist back and prepared a series of punches, each one blocked expertly by Peter. He was surprising himself a little, hardly feeling any kind of sting from the force of Flash’s fists hitting his palms over and over. No matter what angle the jock tried to come from Peter was quick to adjust himself and stop him. 

 

“Holy shit, Parker is fast.” He hears from one of the football players behind him. Maybe his reflexes weren’t as fast as he thought or he just got overly cocky, but the next thing Peter knew there was a fist connecting with his right cheek. The force of it knocked Peter backward and he heard a howl of pain, but it hadn’t come from him. In fact, he didn’t feel any pain at all from the punch.

 

When he looked up he saw exactly where the yell had come from. Flash was cradling his hand, tears pricking at his eyes. He was letting out a stream of curses now all directed at himself, Peter saw the attempt at a kick even before Flash had his foot fully swinging in his direction. He managed to summersault backward, landing on his feet in a crouch before standing fully and pulling back his fist. Flash, still thrown off from Peter’s dodge, didn’t even see the fist coming towards him. Peter consciously used as little of his new strength as possible and hit Flash square in his face. The jock fell backward and started cursing louder than before, blood gushing from his now broken nose. 

 

When Peter stood up straight again he scanned the crowd and found Wade’s eyes. It was almost comical to see the look of surprise and also joy on Wade’s face, the boy almost looked starstruck. After a beat of silent shock, someone in the crowd let out a whoop and then everyone followed suit. 

 

“Holy shit! Peter Parker takes down the quarterback!”  
“Puny Parker ain’t so puny anymore!”

 

Some of the cheerleaders were even looking at him the way they’d usually eye the football players — like a piece of meat they’d love to dig their perfectly manicured nails into. 

 

Of course, that was all drowned out to a pleasant buzzing in the background when Wade broke away from the crowd to step between him and Flash. 

 

“Fuck! You’re gonna pay for this, Parker! Babe, get out of the way so I can teach this little shit a lesson.” Flash stood shakily, waving Wade out of the way with his good hand. 

 

“Nahhh,” Wade beckoned over two of Flash’s friends. “You boys should get him out of here, he’s done. Speaking of done…” Wade shed Flash’s letterman jacket from where it was draped over his shoulders and dropped it to the ground in front of the three jocks. He then turned around and made his way over to Peter, quickly cozying up against his side. 

 

“We’re over, Flash.” Wade winked at him as some of the cheerleaders called out encouragements to Wade from somewhere on his right. 

 

“So Petey, you gonna sweep me off my feet now?” Wade grinned and Peter nodded deftly, still amazed that any of this was happening right now. 

 

Peter turned his body so that he could easily lift the cheerleader up bridal-style. Wade’s arms easily wrapped around his shoulders as they made their way out of the stadium, leaving the crowd behind. 

 

“So, what do you have planned next?” Wade placed a kiss on the cheek that Flash had hit earlier. “You sure your face is okay, I thought for sure you were going down for good after that hit.” 

 

Peter shook his head. “Can’t feel a thing,” he murmured. 

 

“Still riding the high, huh?” Wade laughed and Peter shrugged, making Wade bounce in his arms. 

 

“Well, so long as you’re still feeling on top of the world,” Wade started, slyly. “How about you rock mine?” Wade squirmed a little, hopping out of Peter’s arms. He hadn’t even realized they were already in the deserted parking lot until Wade was pushing him back against the side of a red pick-up. 

 

“Yes— I mean, uh,” He stuttered for a moment, having Wade pressed close to him was doing nothing to help his brain formulate a coherent thought. “You’re my boyfriend now? Only if you want to be, that is, this is me asking you. To be my boyfriend…” Peter cringed at his own awkwardness, but Wade just laughed and pressed closer. 

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m your boyfriend, Petey.” He leaned in then, pressing his lips firmly to Peter’s own. 

 

Peter had never made out with anyone before, but this was definitely that. The tongue in his mouth that wasn’t his own and the frequent tug of his lip between Wade’s teeth said as much. Peter was dazed by the time Wade pulled back. He thought his eyes were open but he was having trouble seeing anything at all. 

 

He could hear Wade somewhere in the distance calling out to him, but there was a rushing in his ears. He mentally chased after the sound of his name, Wade’s voice getting louder and louder until— 

 

“Peter!” 

 

— 

 

Peter shot up, drenched in a cold sweat and breathing hard. The first thing he recognized was that his head was throbbing. The second thing was that he was not in an abandoned parking lot, pressed against a red pick-up truck and having the life kissed out of him by a young Wade Wilson in a cheerleading uniform. He groaned and dropped his head into his hands, noting that everything he had just been through was obviously some kind of fever dream. 

 

Looking around, he also noticed he was not left unconscious in the street somewhere. He seemed to be in someone’s home, but it was definitely not his own. The walls were blank and the furniture was sparsely placed around the apartment, not to mention there was an odd odor that hung in the air. 

 

“Took you long enough to wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” The voice startled him so badly that he automatically sprang to action, sticking himself to the roof like he usually would when in a threatening situation. Having the higher ground was always beneficial. 

 

“Woah, I get that you’re, like, part spider and all… But you should really not be crawling on my roof right now. I think you definitely, positively have a concussion.” Peter looked in the direction of the voice, which he now knew was Wade’s, and saw the man leaning over his small kitchen counter and looking up at him through the eyes of his Deadpool mask. He must have changed into civilian clothes, but kept the mask on because of Peter’s presence in his home.

 

Well, not Peter’s exactly — Spider-Man’s. 

 

Wait, he was still wearing his mask right? Peter dropped quickly down from the ceiling, wobbling slightly, and brought his hands up to feel that his mask was still in place, only pulled up so his mouth was uncovered. 

 

“Sorry ‘bout lifting up your mask, but I didn’t know how bad you’d be when you woke up. There was a p good possibility that you were going to vomit and you probably woulda’ been pissed at me if I let you do that in your Spidey mask.” Wade shrugged and turned to grab something and then move back around the counter. 

 

“Here. Your head probably feels like you got thrown into a brick wall a couple times by a crazy Deadpool Impersonator-Lady.” 

 

“Uh, yeah. Thanks.” Peter took the medication and glass of water from Wade’s hands. “You know, a lot of medication doesn't work on me ‘cause of the spider thing.” It wouldn’t hurt to try so Peter popped the pill in his mouth and washed it down anyway. 

 

Wade shrugged again. “Those work for me sometimes. Strong shit, might do something.” There was a beat of silence as Peter continued to sip on his water and Wade shuffled a bit awkwardly. 

 

“I didn’t see your face, in case you’re worried. Scouts honor or whatever. I don’t think you were bleeding or anything, but you’re going to have a hell of a lump on your head. I iced it for a while but that’s not gonna help much, honestly.” Wade was wringing his hands nervously, it was a little weird being in close proximity to each other after so long of being distant. 

 

Peter was also relieved that he wouldn’t have to see Wade’s face. If he wasn’t wearing the Deadpool mask things might have been too overwhelming after having such a realistic dream. Well, it felt real but it obviously didn’t make much logical sense. 

 

“Thanks for not, you know, leaving me on the streets,” Peter tried to say jokingly, but it came off a little too flat. “I should probably get home and just put more ice on my head.” He finished weakly. 

 

“I wasn’t just gonna leave ya’, that would not follow the superhero bro code. And don’t worry about whats-her-face, the Avengers totally showed up after we beat it.” Wade took the glass when Peter held it out and he could swear he saw Wade stiffen when their fingers brushed. Peter might have had a similar reaction, but managed to distract himself by pulling his mask back down and straightening it out. 

 

“You can just… Leave out the window? That’s how I get in and out usually. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the area, but if you need direction back to Manhattan…?” Wade trailed off. 

 

“I, uh, live in Queens. So if that’s where we are, I’m probably fine.” Peter knew they were in Queens of course since Wade lived in the same apartment complex as his aunt now. Lucky for him, he wasn’t feeling too dizzy from the concussion and could (hopefully) get back without passing out again.

 

“Oh, yeah. You’re good then.” Wade gave him a thumbs up, the tension in the air still present. 

 

“I’ll see you around, Wade.” Peter turned on his heel and opened the window leading out onto the fire escape. 

 

“Yeah, smell ya’ later.” He hears Wade murmur before climbing out the window and webbing away from the complex towards his own apartment. 

 

— 

 

Somehow, Peter had made his way safely back to his apartment despite the fact that his head was still throbbing and he had no idea what time it was or if it was even the same day. Glancing at the digital clock above the stove, he saw that it was currently 3:47 AM. 

 

He cursed his rotten luck, knowing he shouldn’t skip class in the morning when it was so close to the end of the semester. He had class in four hours, he’d have to get up sooner than that to commute across town to Empire State University. He found his phone where he’d left it on his coffee table and set a dozen alarms for himself, sighing in defeat. His body would be fighting him in a couple hours, his brain would probably be fighting too, honestly.

 

Tapping away from his alarms he noticed a number of text notifications. When he tapped the icon Wade’s name popped up first. 

 

_Shit._

 

He had totally forgotten that he had told Wade he could hang out after class. He felt like an asshole for wanting to back out so badly now when he had really been looking forward to it before. Not only was his body not going to be up to it tomorrow, but his heart wouldn’t be in it either. He really needed time to get over that bizarre dream he had. 

 

_‘today was a hot fucking mess. cant wait to just chill out w/ u tomorrow petey!’_

 

Peter groaned and walked to his bedroom while he thought out a tactful way to tell Wade they’d have to reschedule. He lay back on his bed, thumbs nervously twitching over the phones keyboard. 

 

_‘About that… I think I caught something and besides dragging myself to class tomorrow I don’t think my body is up for much else. :(‘_

 

_‘oh no :( is that why you’re awake so late?’_ Wade texted back a few moments later and Peter sucked in a breath. He didn’t even think about the time and how weird it was he’d be up around the time Spider-Man had left Wade’s. Luckily, illness was a pretty good excuse. 

 

_‘Yeah. Sleeping is hard when you’re sweating bullets haha,’_ He really didn’t want to schedule anything without knowing where his head would be in a couple days, but the guilt was clawing at his insides. 

 

_‘Are you busy Friday?’_ He tapped out. 

 

_‘uhhh not that i know of? u think you'll be better by then?’_

 

_‘I hope so. Friday then? :)’_ Peter really hoped he wouldn’t regret this when Friday did roll around.

 

_‘yeah! i hope u feel better soon~ catch some z's 4 me! <3’ _He huffed out a laugh and typed back a goodnight before locking his phone and plugging it into the charger by his bed. 

 

“Well,” He said aloud to the still, darkness of his bedroom. “At least it can’t get any worse from here on out, right?”

 

He could tell he was going to greatly regret saying that later, but he was too tired to care much about jinxes right now. His only thought before he completely gave himself over to sleep was that he hoped no more weird fever dreams about a certain Merc would bother him before morning. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that writing class is really sucking the life out of me. I'm writing this in most of the spare time I have, but I'd rather not force myself. Hopefully, this chapter is all right, I'm learning a lot of new things about my writing so now I'm insecure about everything, haha. The point is, updates are just going to be very irregular from here on out, but there's an end in sight and I'm very excited about it. c: 
> 
> There's no chapter art for this one, unfortunately. [There's still a fun playlist though if you want to take a listen.](http://8tracks.com/walesaph/shot-through-the-heart)


	9. I Love You So

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Wade go on a date to the zoo!

As much as he wanted to sleep until Friday, Peter did still have a job to go to. Jameson wanted pictures of the fight, of course, which Peter didn’t have any of given the fact that he was unconscious for ninety percent of it. 

 

He got chewed out as expected but handed over what pictures he could anyway. His pay this week was going to be a little short, that was for sure. He spent as much time resting as he could, the lump on his head going down quickly thanks to his own healing factor. By Thursday he felt much better about going to see Wade. Even better, he hadn’t had any weird dreams since the concussion. 

 

Even though that dream hadn’t resurfaced in any way he couldn’t help but feel affected by it. The dream had spurred a feeling of doubt, leaving him to question his entire relationship with Wade — Which, really, was already very questionable. The Wade in his dream hadn’t really given Peter a second thought until he had become Spider-Man. 

 

_If I was still just some scrawny nerd like in my dream would he even be interested?_

 

Peter huffed out a sigh and moved from sitting at his small dining table to sprawling out across the couch. What if he met up with Wade tomorrow and they didn’t really get along outside of the mutual physical attraction? He threw an arm over his face and groaned. 

 

“Since when are you this insecure, Peter?”

 

—

 

Peter managed to finish a lot of his classwork Thursday night and it would be easy enough to get the rest done over the weekend. He stood in front of Wade’s apartment door, willing himself to just knock. He’d already paid a surprise visit to Aunt May, who was overjoyed to see him taking a little more care of himself and getting out of his own home. She’d asked if he’d talked to Tony Stark lately, knowing that it was his goal to get a paid internship under the man. What she didn’t know was that Stark had already offered and he had declined.

 

“I haven’t had much time. You know I’m busy with my thesis and _The Bugle,_ ” Peter had said.

 

“I know, Peter, but you’re so smart and so close to graduating. I’m sure Mr. Stark would hire you if you just went and spoke to him.” 

 

He’d agreed to go before graduation even though he knew he wouldn’t be asking Tony Stark for a job until he had a diploma in his hands. Tony knew how smart he was, which was why the man had offered him a job in the first place. As much as he wanted the money, he was going to finish school first. He shouldn’t have an advantage over other people looking for a position under Stark just because he was Spider-Man. At least that’s how he saw it. 

His phone chimed with a text from Wade. 

_‘hey are u going to stand outside forever orrrr…’_

 

_Well, shit._ Peter knocked on the door and it immediately opened. 

 

“Petey! What a surprise I wasn’t expecting you at all.” Wade stood in front of him, wearing an old hoodie and some jeans and his Deadpool mask. 

 

“Mhm,” Peter hummed, shaking his head as he stepped into the apartment. “Why are you wearing your mask?” 

 

“Oh, that. Bad skin. Seriously, it looks like freshly sliced salami. Actually, no, that’s an insult to salami. Point is, it’s gross.” Wade shut the door behind Peter before walking ahead of him into the apartment. 

 

“You know I don’t care about that, right?” Peter followed him through the hallway and into a room with a beat up couch, armchair, and a T.V. against the opposite wall. The place looked a lot cleaner than it had looked when Peter was in this exact room earlier that week. 

 

“And as much as I believe that is totally one hundred percent true—“ 

 

“It is,” Peter cuts in.

 

“—Just because you’re fine with it doesn’t mean you should _have_ to look at it.” Wade shrugged and leaned against the island separating the living area from the kitchen.

 

“We’re friends, right? So you need to trust that I’m really fine with something if I tell you I am,” Peter sighs, not quite meeting Wade’s eyes. He didn’t want to start an argument as soon as he walked in, but he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. 

 

“Sure. And you should trust me when I say it’s really best if I keep the mask on for now.” Wade sighed too. “It’s not about you, okay? And I mean that in, like, the nicest way anyone has ever said those words.” 

 

“Okay, Wade,” Peter relented. “So… What did you have in mind for us to do today?” 

 

“So I was thinking—“  
  
“Oh, boy…”

 

“ _I was thinking_ … We could go out instead of staying in my boring apartment all day! You really need to learn how conversations work, Petey. Usually, you let the person finish talking before you make rude comments.” Wade scolded jokingly.   


“Sorry. Where did you want to go?” Peter perched on the arm of the couch, waiting to see what Wade had come up with.   


“Wellll, I was reading the paper and—“  
  
“You read the paper?” Peter cut Wade off again and the other man stared blankly back at him. He could feel the disapproving stare through the man’s mask. “Sorry.”

 

“Seriously, Pete. Manners,” he shook his head. “Yes, I read the paper. How else would I see all those pics you take? Anyway, I was reading it and I saw that the zoo just got a new exhibit!” There were a few beats of silence after Wade spoke.

 

“Oh, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you were done before I started talking,” Peter teased. 

 

“Pfft, dork.” Wade snorted. 

 

“You really want to go to the zoo?” Peter asked.

 

“Yeah, I figured that since you like taking pictures and stuff you could take some of the animals? Or maybe you hate taking pictures of animals and only enjoy taking pictures of men in spandex? I won’t judge!”

 

“I’d really love to take pictures of something that isn’t Spider-Man, actually.” Peter grabbed his backpack off the floor and fished his camera out from inside. “Is that why you specifically asked me to bring this?” 

 

Wade nodded, “Yep! Let’s go, Pete, pleeease! It’s probably the last time we’ll be able to go to the zoo before it closes for the winter.”

 

“Yeah, okay. It sounds like fun.” Peter smiled and put his camera back in his backpack, zipping it up and slinging it back onto his shoulder.   


“Woo! Okay, let me grab shoes. Reptile House, here we come!” 

 

—

 

Once they were at the zoo they hit up the new Reptile House first and then moved on to the rest of the attractions, which were far less crowded. Peter was snapping pictures of the animals as they went while Wade cooed over them through the glass. Wade also cooed at Peter every time he got serious about the angle of his shots, explaining that he just looked “too cute” when he was focused like that. 

 

Peter rolled his eyes every time he noticed the masked man staring and kept taking his pictures. They got a lot of odd looks from people passing by since Wade was still in his Deadpool mask, but it didn't bother Peter as much as it probably would have a couple months ago. 

 

They made their way over to the lion exhibit, where they seemed to be laying out in the sun and absorbing as much warmth as they could. Peter immediately pulled up his camera and zoomed in, trying to get a good angle from the elevated viewing area. 

 

“Hey, I have like a crazy good idea! Get ready to take the best shot ever, the Bugle will be begging to buy the pictures from you.” Wade gave Peter a thumbs up before hopping up onto the ledge of the open exhibit. 

 

“W-what? Wade what are you doing!?” His Spider Senses urged him to try and grab the other man before he could jump, but he was a second too late. Wade jumped into the exhibit and started waving his arms.

 

“Come here, kitty!” Wade yelled as he pretended to crumple to the ground in a useless heap. “I’m terribly injured and cannot escape! Oh, whatever shall I do? If only a _superhero_ were here to save me!” He turned his head back to Peter and gave him another thumbs up. 

 

“Idiot, who do you thinks going to save you? Get back up here!” They were going to get kicked out of the zoo. Peter was never going to be allowed back here again. He groaned and dragged a hand down his face. 

 

He looked desperately around for a place where he could hide and saw a secluded spot around the side of the gift shop building nearby. Turning quickly, he sprinted away from the slowly forming crowd. He heard Wade call his name faintly, but he had to be quick and couldn’t afford to explain himself. He dived into some foliage behind the building and fished his suit out from the bottom of his bag, hidden beneath a layer of normal clothing. He checked again to see if anyone was nearby, but by now everyone’s focus had moved to Wade. 

 

Moments later he's swinging out from the trees and jumping into the lion pit in front of the now cheering crowd. 

 

“Look, mom, it’s Spider-Man!” a child yelled. Many others followed, saying that Spider-Man was going to save the day. 

 

“Oh, hey, Spidey! Didn’t think you’d actually show up so quick. I thought for sure I’d have to go through some dismemberment before you got here!” Wade said from his spot very close to the lions, who hadn’t decided to attack yet apparently. 

 

“What the hell are you thinking? Come on, we’re getting out of here,” Peter said while tugging Wade up and preparing to web them out of this mess. 

 

“Wait, wait! Can you just wait, like, a minute longer? Petey should be back any minute and I really wanted him to get a picture of this.” Wade struggled a bit in Peter’s grip as if he could actually get away. 

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” 

 

“I jumped in here hoping you’d come save the day and then Peter— You know, the kid who takes the great pictures of you for that shitty newspaper— He would get a great picture and could get paid some extra cash!” Wade said matter-of-factly. 

 

“Listen, I’ll let Peter get as many pictures as he wants some other time!” Peter said and then hastily webbed them out of the lion’s pit and up to the crowd who cheered their thanks to Spider-Man.

 

“I’m sure all these people got plenty of pictures that the Bugle will get anyway. Can’t wait how they turn me into a ‘menace’ with this one.” Peter sighed and looked over when there was the sudden sound of running feet hitting the pavement.

 

“Shit,” Wade mumbled. Some of the zoo security were coming their way and Peter sucked in a breath. 

 

“Well, it was great seeing you again Deadpool, but I’ve gotta’ go!” He yelled as he webbed off, taking a less direct route to get back to his stuff, still hidden in the bushes behind the gift shop. 

 

—

 

Peter gets a text from Wade telling him that he’d been kicked out of the zoo and that he should meet him at the front entrance. He goes, of course, after changing back into his regular clothes. When he find Wade the man immediately asks him where he’d gone off to.

 

“Spider-Man showed up! We aren’t even bros right now so it was super awkward and I wanted you to be able to get a picture, but you just disappeared!” Wade said, clearly exasperated. 

 

“Sorry, I was trying to find someone who could get you out! I mean, who really believes that Spider-Man is going to be hanging out at the zoo like that?” Peter sighed and plopped down on the bench next to Wade. 

 

“I don’t know, maybe he’s super into reptiles, man.” Wade shrugged helplessly. “You’re mad at me, right? I fucked up?” 

 

“No— I mean,” Peter covered his face with his hands. All those intrusive thoughts from this morning slowly coming back. Why did Wade even want to hang out with him? Was it just some sort of ploy to get Spider-Man to come save him because he told Wade that he was friends with the vigilante? How much longer would he be able to keep the fact that _he is_ Spider-Man a secret from the other man? 

 

“I just wish we could have done something stupid and cute like go to the zoo and take pictures without having to bring Spider-Man into it, I guess?” Peter began. “I mean, it sounds stupid, but I’m just sick of Spider-Man! He makes everything so much more complicated, you know? I know, you kinda’ have this hero crush on him, like, he inspired you to be a better person? I just thought that today…” he trails off, suddenly embarrassed.

 

“Today?” Wade prompted.

 

“Nevermind, I just wanted to hang out without something going wrong.” 

 

“Shit, okay. I know this is all my fault and it was a really dumb thing to do. Do you really think I’d rather hang out with Spider-Man than you? He’s a cool superhero, yeah, but me and him haven’t exactly seen eye to eye lately. The guy has serious trust issues. I know you’re buddies with him and that’s fine, but I didn’t think about how it was mostly a working relationship? So…” Wade took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for, like, accidentally bringing your work out on our date-thing?” 

 

“Date-thing?” Peter asks, a smile tugging at his lips. 

 

“Yeah, you’re a cute kid and I’d be a liar if I said that wasn’t exactly what this was. Anyway, I’ll check with you next time before, uh, doing something stupid?” Wade looked to Peter, probably hopefully. Peter snorts. 

 

“Yeah, okay. At least ask me before doing something dumb next time and we’re good.” The smile that was teasing his lips a moment ago has now broken out, full-force. 

 

“Sweet! So, you want to go back to my place?” Peter could see the man’s non-existent eyebrows wiggle through his mask, making him laugh.

 

“Yeah, you told me you had video games and I fully intend to kick your ass at Mario Kart.” 

 

—

 

Back at Wade’s they play a couple rounds of Mario Kart, almost having a tie game by the end. They heat up some leftovers Aunt May had left Wade and sit back on the couch to eat as music from the game still pours through the T.V. 

 

“So,” Wade says through a mouthful of casserole. “Can we take a look at those pictures you got earlier?” 

 

“Oh, sure. Hold on.” Peter sets his plate on the coffee table and leans over the arm of the couch to grab his backpack. Careful to keep the opening out of Wade’s view (just in case), he digs his camera out of the bag. 

 

“Here.” He holds the camera out so they can both see the display screen. A few pictures in Wade speaks again.

 

“You, uh, really don’t like your job, right? You love photography, though?” He questions. 

 

“Yeah, I only have the job because I was already into photography I guess? I don’t want to take pictures of Spider-Man forever. I really wanted to work for Tony Stark because, well, you know. Big lab, best equipment and technology, good pay.” Peter trails off laughing nervously. He knows Wade doesn’t necessarily like Tony Stark, but he’s not completely against him.

 

“Hey, I kinda’ know the Avengers! If you want I could put in a good work for you with Stark and—“

 

“No!” Peter cuts in loudly. “I mean, I really want to get the job because I’m good at what I do, not because of a favor or something.” 

 

“But you’re about to graduate soon, right? What’s the harm in getting the job a couple months early?” Wade asks. 

 

“I—I don’t know. It’s a stupid pride thing I guess. I know it’s dumb ‘cause, wow, the money I could be making, but it’s just something I settled on I guess?” 

 

“Sure,” Wade answered, digging back into his dinner. 

 

“Do you want to play a different game after we finish eating or watch a movie maybe?” Peter suggested. 

 

“Oh man, we have to watch a movie! That’s how dates should always end.” Wade smiled through his mask. 

 

—

 

Not long into the movie Wade was obviously putting the moves on Peter. It was everything he’d seen in cheesy romcoms — Yawning and putting an arm over the other person’s shoulders, holding hands in the popcorn bowl — the whole nine yards. 

 

“You know, you’re crazy if you think I’m going to put out on our first date.” Peter joked, side-eyeing the man currently pressed against his side on the couch. 

 

“Well, lucky you. I’m pretty much the definition of crazy.” Wade grinned through his mask. 

“I think it’s going to be pretty hard to put any real moves on me with a mask on, Wade.” What was happening? Peter didn’t even know where he was going with this. He was running blind. 

 

“Hmm, you have a point.” Wade rolled up his mask so that it rested above the tip of his nose, his mouth and chin exposed and his grin still in place. 

 

“Wade, really? I’m not going to kiss someone when I can’t even see their whole face.” Peter turned his nose up, snottily and looked away with a smirk tugging at his lips. 

 

“You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Parker.” Wade sighed a little shakily but reached up to tug his mask off anyway. Peter turned back to look at him. Finally, the man’s face was exposed, the skin raw and agitated like it had just freshly healed. It didn’t disgust him like Peter once thought it might have. It was a part of the man and there was nothing more gorgeous that Peter could think of at the moment, as sappy as that all sounded. He’d kick himself for it later. 

 

“You, uh, still want to kiss me?” Wade chuckled nervously and Peter’s heart melted right there. 

 

“Mhm,” Peter hummed. His brain was offline and his heart was on autopilot as he stared at the man’s chapped lips. 

 

“Wait, really? This is—?” Wade obviously wasn’t expecting the answer he got and Peter had to cut off his nervous stuttering. 

 

“Wade,” he cut in. “Kiss me?” He could hear Wade gulp and then nod. His left hand that was still draped limply over Peter’s shoulder now shifted to cup the back of his neck and drag him closer. 

 

Wade’s lips meeting his was like fire. Heat spread through his chest as he gasped into the kiss. Wade was still hesitant, not pushing any further and instead, waiting for Peter to deepen the kiss. So he did. 

 

Peter pulled him close, gripping the fabric of Wade’s hoodie tightly, lips parted, tongue pressing against the seam of the man’s lips which then parted as well. 

 

They continued at a slow pace for a few moments longer, Peter’s teeth gently tugging at Wade’s bottom lip before he pulled away fully. He hummed, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Wade’s shoulder, turning slightly so he could continue watching the movie through the lovestruck haze he was currently in. 

 

Wade did the same, turning his body more towards the television, but moving his arm back around Peter’s shoulders so he could pull him closer, tucking him against his side. 

 

There were only a few instances as they watched the movie where Peter would catch Wade watching him and he would lean up to press his lips to the underside of the man’s jaw, which would then lead to a few lazy kisses before their focus returned to the television. By the end of the movie Wade had fallen asleep, head resting against the back of the couch and his arms slack around Peter. 

 

Peter sighed contentedly, a small smile still in place on his lips. This was what he dreamt about, more or less. He felt happy, warm, and content. Yet, there was something nagging in the back of his mind. The fact that he had still neglected to reveal his identity to Wade wasn’t fair to the man at all. Sure, he was scared that Wade would hate him for everything that happened but it couldn’t be worse than how it would all feel if Wade found out later. Especially if he didn’t find it out from Peter himself. 

 

With a churning feeling of guilt in his gut Peter gently untangled himself from Wade. The other man shifted but didn’t wake up as Peter gathered his things quietly. He decided it would be best to keep Wade’s door locked and go out the window to the buildings roof. That way he could change into his suit and get home faster and with less risk of running into any actual trouble. 

 

He fished his phone out of his pocket, shooting a quick text to Wade so the man would know where he’d gone. 

 

_‘Sorry, I left without saying goodbye! I’ll text you in the morning so I don’t wake you and so you know I got home alright. Maybe tomorrow we can hang out again? I kinda’ have some stuff to get off my chest while we’re at it. I had a great time today so I hope we can do it again! With fewer lions next time? :P’_

 

He’d leave a real note, but he had no idea where to put it where Wade would see it. He sent the text off after locating Wade’s phone and flipping the sound off. After the text was received he turned the sound back on and set the phone back on the arm of the couch. 

 

He opened the window quietly, crawling out and sticking to the wall so he could use one hand to close the window behind him. He then made his way to the roof and changed into the Spidey suit before webbing his way back home. Wade would surely wonder how Peter got out of his apartment with the door still safely locked and the answer to thatwould become clear if everything went as he planned tomorrow. 

 

Of course, nothing ever goes as he plans. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took so long to write! I just had such a hard time with this chapter so if it reads weird I'm really sorry.   
> And there isn't even chapter art? I hope the kiss is good enough without it. 
> 
> Thanks to Zin and Taz who provided me with the entire zoo idea, though! I was super lost on what to do for a semi-interesting date. 
> 
> Good news! The next chapter is already halfway written so the wait shouldn't be as long. Thank you so much for reading and I hope everyone has a fun Halloween! Stay safe <3


	10. Lost Track Of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> See the end notes for warnings.

 

First thing in the morning Peter grabs himself a bowl of cereal before he decided to do morning patrol. He’d been so busy the past week between the near-concussion and work that he hadn’t had much time to do any real patrolling. 

 

Swinging through the brisk morning air was the most refreshing way to start his day and he made a mental note to do it more often. Of course, the relaxing feel of the morning fades when his Spider Senses start to hum. He makes his way through the city and ends up at a series of warehouses, his Spider Sense spiking when he got close. 

 

‘ _Classic bad guy hideout,’_ he thinks. ‘ _Not very surprising.’_

 

He watched from one of the rooftops as a small group of men in masks took an unconscious civilian inside one of the buildings. He outwardly cringed, captive situations were always extremely delicate and hard to handle. He couldn’t just throw himself around and spout witty banter like usual. 

 

Peter creeps around the back of the warehouse, trying to see if he can spot any entrances that they wouldn’t expect him to come in from. When a hand touched his shoulder he’s quickly whipping around to try and land a punch. A hand easily caught his fist and another gloved palm quickly covered his mouth through his mask. 

 

“Shhh, Spidey it’s me,” Deadpool frantically whispered beside him. “Also, holy shit that hurt!” The man took his hand away from Peter’s mouth and rubbed at his sore palm. 

 

“Deadpool??” Peter questioned. How did Wade even get here? He had to use his Spidey Senses just to be able to find this place. 

 

“Quiet, I don’t want to tip these guys off. They took something real important to me and I don’t plan to play nice.” Wade grumbled and moved past Peter to look around the corner. The men from before were exiting the building and heading toward their van. 

 

“These assholes have been kidnapping innocent people for days. I haven’t had a chance to figure out why and I haven’t had a chance to figure out how to deal with them without… You know.” Wade slowly drags a finger across his own throat. 

 

“I get it, but why didn’t you just come to me or the Avengers? This has been happening for days? I didn’t sense anything!” Peter thinks about how off his senses must have been from how exhausted he was the past week for him not to have noticed any criminal activity. Not even a news report. 

 

“You took a pretty bad beating earlier this week, Spidey. Can’t say I blame you for being a little off your game.” 

 

“A bump on the head isn’t an excuse,” Peter sighs in frustration. “Are they… Are they killing people?” He feels like he doesn’t want to know the answer. 

 

“No one’s been found alive yet so,” Wade shrugs. “Doesn’t look good.” 

 

“So this thing that they’ve taken from you. What’s that about?” 

 

“It’s not a thing, really. It a, uh, person.” Wade murmurs. He settles back against the wall as the van speeds away from the warehouse.

 

“What!?” Wade’s hand is suddenly back over his mouth. 

 

“Shushh! There could be more of those guys inside!” The merc growls at him and Peter gulps. Whoever they took must be pretty important, but who was even that important to Wade? 

 

“They kidnapped someone you know?” Peter whispers harshly. “Who?” 

 

“You know him too. Peter Parker, the kid who takes the photos for _The Bugle_.” Peter could only blankly stare at the other man. He wanted to laugh and say how ridiculous that was, but it struck him again in that moment that Wade still didn’t know he and Spider-Man were the same person. 

 

“Shit, okay, I need you to listen to me for a minute.” Peter starts. “There’s no way that’s true and— Fuck, this isn’t the place to have this conversation or even the way I wanted it to go but…” Peter trails off, searching for the right words.

 

“Listen, Spidey. I appreciate that you’re here ‘cause, well, I’m nervous as hell about finding Pete. I don’t know if you figured it out already, but Peter is my boyfriend. I think. Actually, don’t quote me on that…” Wade was fidgeting a lot and Peter realized something. He hadn’t texted Wade this morning to say he had gotten home last night. 

 

“ How do you know for sure Peter was kidnapped?” he asked. 

 

“Well, there was a text from him that I got saying he would text me this morning, but he never did. Normally I’d be all ‘Oh, he probably overslept!’, but this is going on and the door was still locked so,” Wade was breathing heavily, obviously shaken up. “I guess I assumed a lot but it’s still weird, right?” Peter wanted to say so badly that everything was fine because _he was_ Peter! For some reason he couldn’t get the words out, they just stuck in his throat. 

 

“Wade, I—“ he tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. 

 

“Whatever it is I’ll hear you out after, I promise! Just help me find him?” Wade pleaded and all Peter could do was nod numbly. They would go inside, beat the bad guys, set the hostages go, and then Peter would go home and text Wade to say he was fine and sorry for worrying him. Problem solved! He could tell him he was Spider-Man when this whole thing was long forgotten.

 

“You could let me handle it, though? You’re pretty shaken up. Maybe he’s at his apartment? You could just go check there and let me check here, trust me I’d tell you if I found him.” Peter tried to reason. 

 

“Haha, right. I _could_ trust you…” The way Wade trailed off stung as if he had flat out told Peter he didn’t trust him at all. 

 

“Fine, do what you want.” Peter sighed before scaling the wall up to one of the high windows. Wade found his own way up without spider powers, grunting when he finally pulled himself up onto the open window ledge. 

 

“Listen, Spidey. We may not be on the best terms right now but that doesn't mean I want you to get hurt again. The guy running all this shit is seriously bad news. Let me do the dirty work, you get Peter and get out safe. You and him can’t come back if it all goes to shit.” Wade opened up the window that led onto a catwalk above the lower level of the warehouse and they both climbed inside. 

 

“Just because you heal doesn’t mean I want you to get hurt either,” Peter sighed. “Don’t get yourself killed for me, okay?” 

 

“Well, I’m not doing this for you. If that helps you sleep at night?” Wade shrugged and crept further into the warehouse, wary of the rusty walkway they were on. Peter winced as soon as the other man turned his back. Maybe he should tell him now, even if Wade hated him it would be the fair thing to do. 

 

They slowly and quietly make their way to the ground floor and through a door that led to a hallway with a few more doors. Peter listened to hear if anyone was on the other side before nodding for Deadpool to head inside.

 

He can tell after the first couple doors that Deadpool is getting panicky. To top it all off his Spider Senses are starting to make his brain go numb, he’s suddenly tense and on edge and he’s trying to grasp Wade’s arm to warn him but even his vision is wavering. Something bad was going to happen and there was no way they could go into this with both of their nerves as strung out as they were. 

 

“Wade.” Peter grasps onto the man’s bicep urgently. Deadpool turns slightly towards him just as he’s starting to walk through the door and Peter tugs them back into the dimly lit room.

 

“What the hell, Spidey?” Wade’s voice is a little loud and Peter shushes him urgently, leaning against the man. “Hey, are you okay?” He asks, softer this time. 

 

“Gotta’ tell you something. My Spider Senses are screaming right now. It’s really hard to concentrate.” Peter closes his eyes, trying to block out the buzz for a little while so he can finally have this conversation. 

 

“I don’t want you to get mad. Now isn’t a good time to be mad.” He sees his own hands start to shake and he grips onto Wade a little tighter. He’s starting to panic from the fear of not wanting the man to freak out, not wanting what they’ve built as Peter and Wade to change, and knowing this means he can’t keep his identity a secret. 

 

Wade is tense beside him, understandably so. “Is this about the trust thing? I’m over that, okay? It’s not the worst thing that someone’s pulled on me by a long shot. Actually, the whole argument we had was pretty stupid, if you trust me and I trust you then that’s it. Problem solved, right?” Wade laughs weakly and puts a hand on Peter’s shoulder. 

 

“No, no, no,” Peter shaking his head, forcing his senses to calm a little. “I’ve been keeping shit from you and I’m sorry, I don’t want you to hate me—“ Peter is cut off by the sound of a click that comes from a few feet away. 

 

“Shit!” Deadpool curses and thence’s pushing Peter out of the way. A bang and a flash. Wade is on the floor, Peter’s senses are through the roof and he’s cursing himself endlessly for ignoring them. 

 

He manages to dodge the next bullet and land a punch on the guy even in the dark room. He knocks the gun from the man’s hand and it goes clattering across the floor into the corner of the room. The guy growls and Peter gets hit in the side of the head by something. It’s enough to do some damage because the next thing he knows everything is going completely black. 

 

—

 

He wakes up cold. he’s on a metal table, that much he knows. Everything is blurry and his head feels like it weighs a ton. He has a terrible headache but his Spider Senses feel dulled. When he tries to struggle he feels that something is restraining him and his limbs feel heavy. 

 

“Peter” a voice croaks from the other side of the room he’s in and he lets his head lull to the side so that he can blearily peer over that way. He can make out red and black and knows it must be Wade. The events from earlier rush back to him, tears are welling behind his eyes followed immediately by a rush of relief that Wade is healed and alive. They still have a chance. He still has a chance to tell him. 

 

His words come out slightly slurred “Wade? ‘M sorry… I—“

 

“Shh, Baby Boy, I’m gonna get you out of here. Don’t worry, okay?” Peter struggled to fight off the sleepy feeling. Wade wouldn’t call Spider-Man “Baby Boy” anymore. That was something reserved for Peter, wasn’t it? 

 

“Spider-Man knows were here, once he figures out how to get us out of this mess I’m gonna’ fucking kill this guy for touching you.” Wade growls. 

 

Peter shakes his head, looking down at himself and realizing that he’s been stripped of his suit and he clearly didn’t have his mask on either. 

 

“Not coming.” He mumbled, still trying to shake off the sleepiness. He’s obviously been drugged somehow after being knocked out. He pushes past the haze and can’t help whatever words spill out of his mouth.

 

“Should have told you last night, I shouldn’t v’waited. Thought I could tell you today, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know this would happen, m’sorry—“

 

“Shh, Pete. You’re not making sense. What were you going to tell me?” He hears some of the panic from before slipping into Wade’s voice. Just as Peter opens his mouth to finally tell him the door to the room slammed open. 

 

“I see the little spider is finally awake?” A deep voice said. The man who walked into the room wore a medical mask over his mouth and Peter shuddered when he saw the man was carrying a food tray with him. All that he could tell through his swimming vision was that whatever was on the tray was definitely not food. 

 

“Listen, doc. That kid ain’t Spider-Man so you’re gonna’ let him go before you make me break my no-killing streak.” Peter noticed as he let his eyes drift back over to Wade that he was also missing his mask. Wade was wearing a dangerous expression that would have probably scared him if it wasn’t for the fact that it was meant to threaten the man who was threatening him. 

 

“You don’t know? I thought you two were friends?” The man says mockingly and Peter mumbles another apology in Wade’s direction. “I guess Spiders really are heartless creatures,” The man puts a hand over his heart and sighs. “So unfortunate.” 

 

“Peter? That’s not… This asshole is lying right?” Wade is looking at him, confusion overshadowing the anger on his face. Peter simply shook his head. 

 

“I wanted to tell you.” Peter felt stupid for crying. It wasn’t because the secret was out, but the way that it was forced out. “Sorry,” he mumbles again. 

 

“Well, now that all the drama is out of the way…” The man sets the tray down on a nearby table and Peter struggles against his restraints once he sees the shine of metal. Whatever is on that tray he doesn’t want anything to do with it. Wade was quiet, still tied up on the ground. There was no hope of Peter getting out of this in his drugged state and he didn’t even know if Wade was capable of getting himself free. By the looks of it, there wasn’t. 

 

“Now, I’m sure that blood of yours is pretty valuable, Mr. Parker. You know, after you ruined my chances of robbing that bank all those months ago I had to come up with a new plan to get money I needed.” Peter’s eyes widened as realization hit him. This was the man who had sent all those goons to rob the bank where he and Wade had teamed up for the first time. That’s where all of this had started. Peter braced himself as he saw the man pick up a needle. 

 

“How much do you think I could sell your blood for, Spider-Man? I’m thinking it’s a lot more than I would have made robbing that bank. So in a way, I guess I should thank you.” The man inserted the needle into his arm and Peter flinched, tugging at his restraints and getting nowhere. His powers would be suppressed from whatever drug he’d been laced with for a while. Long enough for this guy to bleed him dry, most likely. 

 

“You know, it’s too bad your boyfriend can’t help you,” the man mutters as he goes around to Peter’s other side, his back to Wade. The man took another needle and inserted it into Peter’s other arm, blood now draining slowly through two tubes. He knew he wouldn’t last long like this. 

 

A loud curse comes from Wade and Peter sees that he’s standing now, arms free of their bindings. He has to wonder how until he notices how one of Wade’s arms is hanging limply, dislocated. Peter swallows thickly as Wade pops the arm back into place with another loud curse. 

 

“What the hell—“ the man begins, but is quickly cut off by the Merc launching himself at him. Peter tries to struggle again but his vision is getting dark and he can hardly keep himself awake. 

 

He knows the noises around him should be almost deafening but everything is muted now. His senses are so dulled from both the drugs and the blood loss that it’s only a few more seconds before everything goes completely black and he loses consciousness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter contains some heavier violence. Peter gets drugged and is restrained by the villain. Peter also gets his identity outed and has a slight break down. Sensitive subjects, pretty much. 
> 
> So there's one more chapter after this. I'm really considering writing a companion piece. It'll be a one-shot of just some hot Cheerleaderpool action. That's what this fic was supposed to be so it only feels right. It'll be a part of this series, I guess. 
> 
> I'm the most tired I've ever been in my life. Finals are coming up so I think this will get done right as those hit me? If everything goes as planned. Thanks so much for reading, everyone! I'm sorry if anything is weird in this chapter, like I said, very tired.


	11. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all works out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, sorry this is really late.  
> Second of all, you may have noticed this is the last chapter and I'll explain more about that at the end.  
> I'm sorry that I've wrapped it all up kind of quickly, but hope you enjoy to some extent anyway.

When Peter came to the first thing he registered was that his tongue felt like sandpaper in his mouth and his head was aching. He could hear people speaking nearby, but couldn’t tell what they were saying through the cloudiness in his head. It felt like he was underwater, but besides his head all the pain he felt before he had passed out was gone. He was floating and somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if he was dead. 

 

_If that were true,_ he thought, _at least this headache would be gone._

 

He tried to open his eyes but immediately squeezed them shut against the bright light of the room. He groaned and tried to move, but his body was heavy despite the floating feeling. 

 

“Peter!” He heard someone call. He knew the voice, but couldn’t put a name to it for some reason. 

 

“Hey, kid, you hearing us right now?” Peter mumbled in response to the question, not forming any coherent words at all. 

 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” The voice grumbled. Peter tried again to move and a hand stopped him, pushing him firmly back into the bed. “Hey, try to take it easy. You almost died, Peter.” 

 

Still wincing, he managed to open his eyes against the bright lights to see a figure standing next to him and another in a chair in the corner of the room. He looked down to see his arms were bandaged and realized that somehow the man who had tried to kill him had failed. 

 

“We had to give you a transfusion, obviously. Good thing I prepared for that before something like this happened. You’re welcome.” Peter looked up at the man, vision clearing enough for him to finally make out who it was.

 

“Mr. Stark?” His voice came out scratchy, his throat feeling raw. He coughed and groaned as the movement caused his body to ache. 

 

“Yeah, let’s sit you up a little and get you some water. We’ll talk about it when you’re not on your death bed.” He looked behind him to the man in the chair. “You gonna’ help me?” The man stood up and as he got closer Peter realized who it was. 

 

“Wa—“ he broke off coughing for a moment. “—Wade?” So many thoughts rushed through his head, none of which he could say out loud right now. Should he apologize again? Does Tony know anything about what’s happened between him and Wade the past few months? 

 

“Hey, Pete. Probably shouldn’t try to talk until you drink something. I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t sound too fun.” Wade grimaced and walked around to Peter’s other side. Both him and Tony lifted him up as gently as possible and Peter tried not to wince at the pain that followed anyway. Once he had been propped up a cup was brought to his lips and he drank, gratefully. 

 

“What happened?” Peter asked once he had drank enough water to soothe his throat a little. 

 

“Deadpool managed to activate one of your trackers, you popped up on the GPS, a few of us were here to see and came to the rescue. We’re still looking for whoever else was involved but Bad Guy Number One is behind bars.” Tony explained. 

“None of that… Really went how I wanted it to.” Peter mumbled and Tony laughed.

 

“Yeah, I imagine you didn’t plan to almost have all the blood removed from your body. Or the identity thing.” He pats Peter gently on the shoulder and then returns his hands to his pockets. 

 

“I’m going to head out, call if you need me.” Tony turned and walked out the door leaving Wade and Peter alone in the room together. After a few beats of silence, they both opened their mouths to talk only to snap them closed. 

 

“Is it okay if I talk first?” Peter asked and Wade shrugged before motioning for him to continue. “I owe you an apology, like, without me strapped to a table. I really, honestly planned to tell you the truth and I should have done it way before now. 

 

I’m an idiot and you’re completely justified in hating me and never speaking to me again if that’s what you want, but I had to tell you again that I’m sorry. Really, really sorry. There’s no excuse for me not telling you. I was scared for stupid reasons.” He let out a shaky sigh, only meeting Wade’s eyes during his apology to convey that he meant it. 

 

“Okay.”   
  
“That’s fine if you want to— Wait what?” Peter looked up confused.  
  
“Apology accepted. You wouldn’t be beating yourself up so much if you didn’t actually give a shit. I mean, the relationship? We may have to hit the breaks for a minute on that, but I almost expected it not to be perfect so…”  
  
“That’s not a good excuse. Just because you’ve had shitty luck your whole life doesn’t mean you should just, I don’t know, be complacent about getting screwed over again?” Peter said, frustrated.

 

“What? Do you want me to not forgive you?” Wade asked with confusion clearly etched in his voice. 

 

“No, I do. I just don’t want you to forgive me just because it’s easier? I don’t know, I guess I’m making it complicated.” Peter sighed.

 

“Yeah, a little bit.” Wade laughed. 

 

“Well, thanks for forgiving me?”

 

“I thought that when I found out who you were I would hate you, y’know? I mean, Spider-Man is already so cool and then you were probably a pretty normal guy under the suit who got to have a regular life outside of fighting crime,” Wade said. “I figured I’d resent you for that, but I don’t. Hard to resent you, I guess.” He shrugged.

 

“Oh,” Peter looked down and picked at the tape holding the gauze on his arm where the needle had been inserted. “So, we’re good?”

 

“Pretty much. You apologized and I _could_ hold a grudge, but I still like you a lot so I feel like it’s a little hopeless to try and stay away from you. Also, your aunt lives next door to me and gives me free food.” Wade finished with a shrug. Peter laughs and breaks off into a cough. Wade brings the water back to his lips and Peter drinks gratefully. 

 

“That’s really anti-climactic, you know? I was worried for months that you were going to hate me.” Peter leaned back against the pillows, feeling tired again. 

 

“Eh,” Wade shrugged. “Kinda’ fits out narrative, honestly.” 

 

“Hmm,” He hummed, eyes drooping.

 

“Get some sleep, Pete. We can talk later.” 

 

— 

 

 

“Oh my God, you’re the worst.” Peter flops back against the couch cushions, controller falling from his hands to the floor.   
  
“You’re just mad because I have such amazing video game skills!” Wade countered falling on top of Peter, who let out a noise of surprise.

 

“Ugh, you got lucky. Now get off before Aunt May gets here.” 

 

“Okay, okay.” Wade pouts and moves back to his side of the couch. Peter rolls his eyes before sitting up and leaning over to place a kiss on Wade’s cheek. 

 

“Aww, Petey,” Wade said, pout replaced by a big grin. “ You loooove me.”   
  
“Uh-huh,” Peter agreed. There was a knock on the door and Peter moved away from his boyfriend to go answer it.

 

Peter opened the door and Aunt May greeted him with a smile and a hug and then moved on to do the same to Wade. 

 

“I appreciate you boys inviting me over, I know you’re both in that honeymoon phase at the moment.” She said as she took a seat on the couch. 

 

“We’re really not, Aunt May. I’m happy to see you.” Peter replied, settling back into his spot next to Wade. 

 

“Mhmm, you keep telling yourselves that. As long as you’re not getting noise complaints from neighbors I guess it doesn’t matter.” Aunt May said with a smug smile. 

 

“Oh my God,” Peter groaned while Wade snickered next to him. “You’re both terrible.” 

 

“You love us, Petey!” Wade grinned.

 

“Yeah, I do, unfortunately.” Peter poked Wade’s side playfully and gave in, smiling alongside his boyfriend and aunt. 

 

“So, how is the job with Mr. Stark going, Peter?” May asks. 

 

“Oh, it’s great. Tony is a great boss and we’re working on a lot of great stuff.” Peter said, turning back to his aunt. 

 

“Great, I’m so glad you’re finally in a place where you seem happy.” Aunt May placed a hand on his shoulder and Peter pulled her into a side hug. 

 

“Thanks, Aunt May. I am happy.” He looked back at Wade who smiled and joined in on the hug. 

 

“Looks like everything worked out, huh, Pete?” Wade grinned. “It’s almost as if the author got tired of us so now we’re just sitting here saying really mushy things for no reason.” 

 

“Um, I guess?” Peter laughed. “If it means everything worked out for us in the end then I think this is just fine.” 

 

“Mm, you’re right,” Wade kissed Peter on the cheek and then pulled away. “Well, let’s not bore your aunt it’s time for cards!” Wade whipped out a deck of cards and got up to head to the dining table. 

 

“Oh, you won’t cheat me this time Wade Wilson, I’ve got you all figured out.” Aunt May shook her head at the man and got up to take her place at the dining table. Peter followed with a smile. 

 

“You both really are terrible and I love you.” He said fondly. 

 

“I love you too, Petey.” Wade returned. 

 

“Of course we love you too, Peter.” Aunt May said, covering Peter’s hand on the table with her own. “Now let’s get this game started, huh? Wade is going to owe us a lot by the end of the night.” She winked. 

 

“We’ll see!” Wade said as he started shuffling the cards. Peter smiled, knowing he was being a sap and not caring in the slightest. Everything had finally worked out despite the Parker Luck and despite all the miscommunication. In the end, they talked everything out and continue to talk things out every day. And finally, they were happy. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end!  
> I had some plans for more, but life happened and suddenly Christmas was happening and friends really needed me along with family visiting me from other countries.  
> So I ended up just writing a quick end to this story. It's not even edited? But it feels better to finish it than to drag it on when I don't want to write it anymore or to leave it unfinished? This is totally how it would have ended anyway, just with more written. 
> 
> I have a lot of OC stuff I'm working on all the time so I apologize for not being able to make any promises on when the cheerleaderpool one-shot might get released. Thank you for sticking with me through this anyway! 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Any mistakes in here are my own and if you want to point them out I will absolutely fix them. 
> 
> Artwork by [Zin](http://twiistedsin.tumblr.com)
> 
> You can follow me here: [StuckOnTricksterMode](http://stuckontrickstermode.tumblr.com)
> 
> And you should totally follow Sciderman, who pretty much inspired this. Especially their amazing ask blog [Ask-Spiderpool](http://ask-spiderpool.tumblr.com)


End file.
